Automatic video tracking of dust particles in plasmas

Dust particles are present in almost all plasmas used for practical purposes, both technological and hot fusion ones. In most cases their presence is a limiting factor. In this contribution, we present recent progresses obtained in the automatic detection and trajectory reconstruction of plasma dust. An algorithm has been developed, which makes it possible to automatically extract trajectories of a large number of particles from fast imaging data, allowing a statistical analysis of particle trajectories under various plasma conditions, a better comprehension of their influence on plasma properties, and a better characterization of the plasma itself. In this contribution, we focus on results obtained in a radiofrequency parallel plate reactor, where large amount of micron-sized carbon dust is produced in situ by injecting acetylene in argon plasma. Different strategies of particle detection and tracking are presented, and their application to other kind of plasma, and especially fusion plasmas, is discussed. This document is composed of an abstract followed by the slides of the presentation. (authors)