The Project ”Plasmakristall – 4” (PK-4) - a Dusty Plasma Experiment in a Combined DC/RF(i) Discharge Plasma under Microgravity Conditions
- Paper number
IAC-07-A2.6.07
- Author
Prof. Oleg Petrov, Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
- Coauthor
Prof. Vladimir Fortov, Institute for High Energy Densities, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
- Coauthor
Dr. Alexandre Usachev, Institute for High Energy Densities, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
- Coauthor
Dr. Andrey Zobnin, Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
- Coauthor
Prof. Gregor Morfill, Max-Planck-Institut for Extraterrestrial Physic, Germany
- Coauthor
Dr. Markus Thoma, Germany
- Coauthor
Mr. Herwig Hoefner, Germany
- Coauthor
Dr. M. Kretschmer, Germany
- Coauthor
Dr. M. Fink, Germany
- Year
2007
- Abstract
During the last decade there has been a continually growing interest in complex dusty plasma physics. A dusty plasma is a low temperature plasma with immersed dust grains of micrometer size. These grains are quickly charged under plasma exposition and become a component of the plasma. The main features of this component are the very large and variable electric charge (up to 10 5 of electron charges) and the large mass of the grains. This leads to qualitatively new physical phenomena in plasmas - space ordering of the dust component, wide spectrum of specific kinds dust instabilities, very low frequency ( 10 Hz) dust acoustic waves, etc. In addition to the fundamental interest, the complex plasma is a unique physical object allowing to model and investigate different physical phenomena from other fields of physics on the kinetic and microscopic level - phase transitions, crystal shift deformations, shock waves and solitons, laminar and turbulent flow of highly nonideal liquid and so forth. As a rule, the Earth gravity exerts an external stress on the dust component in laboratory experiments. To avoid this stress, the experiments should be performed under microgravity conditions. Microgravity conditions can be achieved by using falling platforms, parabolic flights in air planes, sounding rockets, or orbital flights. The PK-4 experiment is a continuation of the successful dusty plasma experiments PK-1 and PK-2, performed on the Russian Mir space station, PK-3, and PK-3+ experiment presently conducted on board of the International Space Station. The PK-4 experiment is performed in close collaboration between Institute for High Energy Densities of Russian Academy of Sciences, Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, European Space Agency and industry (Kayser-Threde GmbH, Germany). Whereas PK-3 and PK-3 Plus experiments are using a planar rf capacitive discharge, PK-4 studies complex plasmas in a long cylindrical chamber with a combined dc/rf discharge. The PK-4 chamber will provide a particular advantage for investigation of different dynamical phenomena in complex plasmas such as sheared laminar flow of a highly nonideal dusty liquid and its transition to the turbulent regime, nozzle flow, boundary layers and instabilities, shock waves (solitons) formation and propagation, dust particle lane formation, and space dust grain separation by their size, formation of boundary free dust clusters. In present report a physical concept and main parameters of the PK-4 setup as well as main experimental results obtained during the ESA Parabolic Flight Campaigns (2005-2006) will be reported.
- Abstract document