2007/12/19 by Jie Kong, Kong, Jie, Truell Hyde +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Dust and Plasma Wave Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Magnetic confinement fusion research #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0712.3302
openalex publication_date 2007/12/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Dust particles often form vertical chains due to the influence of the wakefield produced by the streaming ions in the plasma sheath. These particle chains are proving useful as a unique diagnostic tool for investigating the physics behind the basic properties of the ion wakefield within the plasma sheath. In this paper, an experimental method is presented for investigating the ion wakefield which employs a new oscillation technique designed to perturb a two-particle vertical chain. Using this technique, damped free fall oscillations are generated via an external DC bias to the lower electrode. A fast Fourier transformation is then used to produce a spectrum from the collected oscillation data and a center of mass oscillation is identified.