Global coherence of dust density waves

The coherence of self-excited three-dimensional dust density waves has been experimentally investigated by comparing global and local wave properties. For that purpose, three-dimensional dust clouds have been confined in a radio frequency plasma with thermophoretic levitation. Global wave properties have been measured from the line-of-sight integrated dust density obtained from homogenous light extinction measurements. Local wave properties have been obtained from thin, two-dimensional illuminated laser slices of the cloud. By correlating the simultaneous global and local wave properties, the spatial coherence of the waves has been determined. We find that linear waves with small amplitudes tend to be fragmented, featuring an incoherent wave field. Strongly non-linear waves with large amplitudes, however, feature a strong spatial coherence throughout the dust cloud, indicating a high level of synchronization