Complex/Dusty Plasma Physics – from Laboratory to Space

Abstract

Complex/dusty plasmas are ubiquitous in space, including interstellar clouds, circumstellar and protoplanetary accretion disks, nova ejecta, and planetary magnetospheres. But there are also manmade plasmas where solid particles grow in the plasma or are injected by purpose. This laboratory research is very interdisciplinary and covers all fields of matter, from plasma physics, gas dynamics, and fluid to solid state physics. Solid nanoparticles can grow by gas phase polymerization in the plasma. Their size can increase to tens of micrometers by accretion and agglomeration. Depending on the molecules in the plasma they can form e.g. ice, carbon, or silica particles. Monodisperse micrometer sized particles can form Coulomb liquids or solids, due to their high charges gained in the plasma environment. Such liquids and solids can be seen as classical condensed matter systems with the special property that the dynamics of the “proxy atoms” (the microparticles) can be observed on the most fundamental level of individual particles allowing new insights into processes like crystallization or melting, defect motion, shear flow, waves and solitons, just to mention only a few topics. A review of complex/dusty plasma research in the laboratory under gravity and microgravity (on the International Space Station) is presented covering the fields from the nanoworld 2 stardust.