Colloidal plasmas - a still emerging field of plasma physics - enable the study of basic plasma properties on a microscopic kinetic level and allow the visualization of collective plasma phenomena, like oscillations and waves. Moreover, a vast number of novel phenomena are found in these systems, ranging from Coulomb crystallization to new types of forces and waves.

Last but not least, they shed a new light on various traditional aspects of plasma physics such as shielding or the mechanism of acoustic waves in plasmas, thus providing new insight into the basic foundations of plasma physics.These course-based and self-contained lecture notes provide a general introduction to this active and growing field to students and nonspecialists, requiring only basic prior knowledge in plasma physics.

Autorentext

Andre Melzer obtained his PhD in plasma physics from Kiel university in 1997 and habilitated in 2002. Since 2003, he leads a group on colloidal (dusty) plasmas at the University Greifswald. His work mainly involves experimental investigations of dusty plasmas in the laboratory and under the microgravity conditions of parabolic flights. Also the study of dust systems under strong magnetic fields and the development of novel diagnostics for dusty plasmas have been in the focus of his work. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles in international journals and several book chapters.

Inhalt

Introduction.- Charging of Dust Particles.- Outline.- OML Charging Currents.- Other Charging Currents.- The Particle as a Floating Probe.- Temporal Evolution of the Particle Charge.- Influence of Many Particles and Electron Depletion.- Forces and Trapping of Dust Particles.- Gravity.- Electric Field Force.- Ion Drag Force.- Neutral Drag Force.- Thermophoresis.- Laser Forces.- Compilation of Forces, Dust Levitation and Trapping.- Vertical Oscillations.- . Coulomb Crystallization.- The One-Component Plasma (OCP).- Yukawa Systems.- Coulomb Crystallization in Dusty Plasmas.- Crystallization in Bounded Systems.- Structural Information.- 3D Crystals.- Dust Particle Interaction.- Interaction in the Horizontal Plane.- Vertical Interaction.- Measurement of the Attractive Force.- Oscillatory Instability of the Vertical Alignment.- The Phase Transition of the Plasma Crystal: Experiment.- The Phase Transition of the Plasma Crystal: Simulations and Theory.- Waves in Weakly Coupled Dusty Plasmas.- Dust-Acoustic Waves.- on-Flow Driven Dust Acoustic Waves.- Dust Ion-Acoustic Wave. - Other Wave Types.- Waves in Strongly Coupled Dusty Plasmas 100.- Compressional Mode in 1D.- Dust Lattice Waves in 2D.- Compressional 1D Dust Lattice Waves: Experiment.- Compressional 2D Dust Lattice Waves: Experiment.- Shear 2D Dust Lattice Waves: Experiment.- Mach Cones.- Transverse Dust Lattice Waves.- Dispersion Relation from Thermal Particle Motion.- A Note on Shielding.- Finite Dust Clusters.- Formation of Finite Dust Clusters.- Structural Transitions in 1D Dust Clusters.- Structure of 2D Finite Dust Clusters.- Structure of 3D Finite Dust Clusters.- Normal Modes in 2D Finite Clusters.- Modes from Thermal Particle Motion.- Stability.- Phase Transitions.- Technical Applications of Dusty Plasmas.- Particle Growth Mechanisms.- Technological Impacts of Dusty Plasmas.- Astrophysical Dusty Plasmas.- Noctilucent Clouds and PMSE.- Dust Streams From Jupiter.- Dust Orbits at Saturn.- Spokes in Saturn's Rings.- Mach Cones in Saturn's Rings.- Summary.