Using charged dust particles to probe the three-dimensional structure of filamentary structures in magnetized plasmas

The Magnetized Dusty Plasma Experiment (MDPX) device investigates capacitively coupled, rf-generated, low temperature plasma and dusty plasma configurations. At low input rf powers (< 5 W), moderate neutral pressures (< 50 mTorr or 6.5 Pa), and large magnetic fields (> 1 T), the plasma can form magnetic-field aligned columns which we refer to as "filaments". Previous experiments have shown that the individual filaments can have a variety of morphologies and can arrange themselves into a variety of semi-organized patterns in the plasma. Other experiments have shown that when charged microparticles are introduced into a filamented plasma, the particle transport is modified by the filaments, with some observations showing dust trapped in-between filaments and other experiments showing dust trapped within filaments. This presentation reports on one of the first comprehensive surveys of dust particle dynamics along the full three-dimensional structure of a filament. It reveals the complexity of dust transport and trapping at different vertical heights along the filament and may give new insights into the potential structure of the filaments.