• Featured in Physics
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Recrystallization in string-fluid complex plasmas

E. Joshi, M. Y. Pustylnik, M. H. Thoma, H. M. Thomas, and M. Schwabe
Phys. Rev. Research 5, L012030 – Published 2 March 2023
Physics logo See synopsis: Stringy Particles in Complex Plasmas
PDFHTMLExport Citation

Abstract

Complex plasmas, i.e., low-temperature plasmas containing suspensions of solid microparticles, exhibit electrorheological properties which are manifested by the formation of stringlike clusters (SLCs) in microgravity experiments. It is thought that SLCs form due to a long-range effective attraction between the particles under the influence of a directed ion flow. We performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of negatively charged microparticles with positive model wakes to mimic the effect of ion flow in experiments, and achieved SLC formation without long-range attraction between the microparticles. We show that long-range-reduced repulsion was enough to obtain the SLCs similar to the experiments and found that the simulations with the long-range attraction became unstable due to particle accelerations. Destruction and recrystallization of the stringlike structure was also studied experimentally using the Plasmakristall-4 facility on board the International Space Station, and the experimental findings were compared to those from three–dimensional MD simulations. We found excellent qualitative agreement between simulation and experiment when recrystallization was simulated using an interparticle potential without effective long-range attraction.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 21 January 2022
  • Revised 29 November 2022
  • Accepted 16 January 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.L012030

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsPlasma PhysicsInterdisciplinary PhysicsPolymers & Soft Matter

synopsis

Key Image

Stringy Particles in Complex Plasmas

Published 2 March 2023

Simulations and an experiment aboard the International Space Station show that changes in the system’s repulsive forces are behind the alignment of particles embedded in an electrified plasma.

See more in Physics

Authors & Affiliations

E. Joshi1,*, M. Y. Pustylnik1, M. H. Thoma2, H. M. Thomas1, and M. Schwabe1,3

  • 1Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 51147 Köln, Germany
  • 2I. Physikalisches Institut, Justus-Liebig Universität Gießen, 35392 Gießen, Germany
  • 3Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, 82234 Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

  • *eshita.joshi@dlr.de

Article Text

Click to Expand

Supplemental Material

Click to Expand

References

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 5, Iss. 1 — March - May 2023

Subject Areas
Reuse & Permissions
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

×

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×