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Latest Results on Complex Plasmas with the PK-3 Plus Laboratory on Board the International Space Station

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Abstract

Complex plasmas are low temperature plasmas that contain microparticles in addition to ions, electrons, and neutral particles. The microparticles acquire high charges, interact with each other and can be considered as model particles for effects in classical condensed matter systems, such as crystallization and fluid dynamics. In contrast to atoms in ordinary systems, their movement can be traced on the most basic level, that of individual particles. In order to avoid disturbances caused by gravity, experiments on complex plasmas are often performed under microgravity conditions. The PK-3 Plus Laboratory was operated on board the International Space Station from 2006 – 2013. Its heart consisted of a capacitively coupled radio-frequency plasma chamber. Microparticles were inserted into the low-temperature plasma, forming large, homogeneous complex plasma clouds. Here, we review the results obtained with recent analyzes of PK-3 Plus data: We study the formation of crystallization fronts, as well as the microparticle motion in, and structure of crystalline complex plasmas. We investigate fluid effects such as wave transmission across an interface, and the development of the energy spectra during the onset of turbulent microparticle movement. We explore how abnormal particles move through, and how macroscopic spheres interact with the microparticle cloud. These examples demonstrate the versatility of the PK-3 Plus Laboratory.

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Correspondence to M. Schwabe.

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This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Interdisciplinary Science Challenges for Gravity Dependent Phenomena in Physical and Biological Systems

Guest Editors: Jens Hauslage, Ruth Hemmersbach, Valentina Shevtsova

The PK-3 Plus project was funded by the space agency of the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economy and Technology according to a resolution of the Deutscher Bundestag under grant number 50WM1203. A. M. Lipaev, V. N. Naumkin, and D. I. Zhukhovitskii are supported by the Russian Science Foundation Grant No. 14-12-01235. C.-R. Du acknowledges support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC), Grant No. 11405030.

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Schwabe, M., Du, CR., Huber, P. et al. Latest Results on Complex Plasmas with the PK-3 Plus Laboratory on Board the International Space Station. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 30, 581–589 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-018-9602-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-018-9602-0

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