Electrostatic potential measurements of imposed, ordered structures in MDPX

Imposed, ordered structures are a recently discovered phenomenon in the Magnetized Dusty Plasma Experiment (MDPX). These structures are the alignment of microparticles, or dust, within a low temperature plasma to the spatial pattern of a conducting wire mesh present in the experiment, and which are observed at high magnetic fields (B ≥ 1 T) and low neutral pressures (P ≤ 100 mTorr). Currently, much of the work investigating these imposed, ordered structures has examined the individual particle dynamics, and recently, developed methods to parameterize the onset of these structures. However, the potential profile within the plasma which gives rise to the confinement of the dust particles is still not well understood. This work will examine these potential structures experimentally with a large grid-like electrode and an in-situ probe to measure the potential structure under the grid-like electrode. The results of these experiments and a discussion of possible models will be given.