RUI: Experimtental Study of the Thermal State of Weakly-Coupled Dusty Plasmas and Nonlinear Properties of the Dust Acoustic Wave

该奖项将支持一系列实验，旨在了解一种独特物质状态的基本特性，一种“尘埃”或“复杂”等离子体，它是一种电离气体，由离子、电子和小颗粒物质（尘埃或冰）组成，通常比人类头发的宽度小得多。在太空中，尘埃等离子体的例子包括恒星和行星形成的云、彗星尾巴、行星环和地球电离层中的夜光云。尘埃等离子体也会在化学活性等离子体中形成，这些等离子体用于工业等离子体处理设备，以制造计算机芯片，污染最终产品并降低总体产量，以及太阳能光伏电池的制造，其中尘埃可以提高所得太阳能电池的整体效率。该研究项目将支持在一个小型学院环境中培养几名极具天赋的本科生，为学生提供比大型院校更全面的研究技能培训；熟悉最先进的软件和实验技术；以及各种解决实际问题的技巧。该研究计划包括几个实验，旨在了解弱耦合（流体状）尘埃等离子体的热学和输运特性。一系列实验旨在测量弱耦合尘埃等离子体的热状态，以更好地理解在许多实验系统中测量到的高温的机制。这项工作将直接测试两种模型，这两种模型被认为是造成观测到的加热的原因，并将支持时间分辨立体粒子图像测速（PIV）系统的开发。这项工作将扩展与奥本大学等离子体科学实验室和德国航空航天中心复杂等离子体研究小组的同事在开发时间分辨平面PIV方面的合作工作。此外，这项工作的一部分将在奥本大学新运行的磁化尘埃等离子体实验设施中完成，并将检查磁场对这些尘埃等离子体系统热状态的影响。第二个系列的实验旨在了解在尘埃等离子体系统中传播的基本波模式的特性，即尘埃声波。将研究热效应对该波如何传播和同步的非线性过程的贡献，其中波的性质调整以匹配外部应用驱动。总之，这些研究将有助于对尘埃等离子体热特性的基本理解，并为尘埃声波的非线性特性提供新的见解。

The award will support a series of experiments aimed at understanding fundamental properties of a unique state of matter, a "dusty" or "complex" plasma, which is an ionized gas consisting of ions, electrons, and small particulate matter (dust or ice) that is typically much smaller than the width of a human hair. In space, examples of dusty plasmas include the clouds from which stars and planets form, comet tails, planetary rings and noctilucent clouds in the Earth's ionosphere. Dusty plasmas are also formed in the chemically active plasmas that are used in industrial plasma processing devices to create computer chips, contaminating the end product and reducing overall yield, and the manufacturing of solar photovoltaic cells, where the dust can increase the overall efficiency of the resulting solar cells. The research program will support the training of several highly talented undergraduate students in a small college environment, providing the students with a more comprehensive research skills training than at comparable experiences at larger institutions; experience with state-of-the-art software and experimental techniques; and a variety of practical problem solving skills. The research program consists of several experiments designed to understand the thermal and transport properties of weakly-coupled (fluid-like) dusty plasmas. One series of experiments is designed to measure the thermal state of weakly-coupled dusty plasmas to better understand the mechanism responsible for the high temperatures that have been measured in a number of experimental systems. This effort will directly test two models that are believed to be responsible for the observed heating and will also support the development of a time-resolved stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) system. This work will extend collaborative work done in the development of a time-resolved planar PIV with colleagues at in the Plasma Science Laboratory at Auburn University and the Complex Plasmas Research Group at the German Aerospace Center. Additionally, a portion of this work will be done at the newly operational Magnetized Dusty Plasma Experiment facility at Auburn University and will examine the effect that magnetic fields have on the thermal state of these dusty plasma systems. A second series of experiments is designed to understand the properties of a fundamental wave mode that propagates in dusty plasma systems known as the dust acoustic wave. The contribution that thermal effects have on how this wave propagates and the nonlinear process of synchronization where the properties of the wave adjust to match an externally applied drive will be investigated. Together, these studies will contribute to the fundamental understanding of the thermal properties of dusty plasmas and provide new insight into the nonlinear properties of the dust acoustic wave.