Overview of research activities in the Magnetized Plasma Research Laboratory (MPRL) collaborative research facility at Auburn University

The Magnetized Plasma Research Laboratory (MPRL) at Auburn University investigates fundamental plasma and complex/dusty plasma phenomena over a range of parameter regimes from unmagnetized plasmas to strongly magnetized plasmas. MPRL's mission is to serve as an open access, multi-user collaborative research facility for the dusty-, basic-, and fusion edge relevant plasma communities. The centerpiece of the laboratory is the Magnetized Dusty Plasma Experiment (MDPX), a highly flexible plasma device with excellent diagnostic access to study the unique regime of high magnetic fields (up to 4 T), at relatively low density (~ 10¹⁴ – 10¹⁶ m^-3) and low electron (Te < 5 eV) and ion temperature (Ti < 0.05 eV). Other instruments include ALEXIS and ALISSA inductively and capacitively coupled plasma sources respectively for simulating space plasma and basic plasma experiments, and a wide variety of “tabletop” scale unmagnetized, low temperature capacitively coupled plasma devices. This presentation summarizes recent studies at MPRL such as pattern formation of filamentary structures at high magnetic fields, nanoparticle growth, dust crystallization, ordering, transport and thermodynamics, using dust as a diagnostic, optical trapping of dust in plasmas, and the effect of plasmas and dusty plasmas on signal transmission.