Complex dusty plasma device at RMIT

Full text: Dusty plasmas are those that contain particles, often up to the micrometre size scale. It is understood that the growth of such particles is an inherent behaviour of the plasma itself. Once thought to be impurities, this field of study has become an active area of research as scientists attempt to understand the kinetics and structures formed by these particles. In particular, Coulomb crystallisation has been measured in dusty plasmas in the laboratory, although such studies are limited to two dimensions. Removal of the force due to gravity allows more complex dusty plasmas to be studied in three dimensions. A wealth of experiments has been conducted on Mir and the International Space Station, observing RF discharges with laser light scattering. A wide range of physical phenomena can be studied in a complex dusty plasma such as magnetisation, temperature, grain-charging, momentum exchange between different plasmonic species, electric potential and fluid behaviour. At RMIT we are building a vacuum chamber equipped with electrodes for the purposes of generating a plasma of a few eV. The plasma will be excited and controlled using argon gas. We present here the current status of the complex dusty plasma device currently under construction at RMIT and our plans to conduct parallel experiments using the PK-4 plasma facility on the International Space Station. (author)