Complex plasma experimental device a€“ A test bed for studying dust vortices and other collective phenomena

摘要

A typical device for carrying out sophisticated and complex dusty plasma experiments is designed, fabricated and made operational at the Institute for Plasma Research, India. The device is named as complex plasma experimental device (CPED). The main aim of this multipurpose machine is to study the formation and behaviour of dust vortices in the absence of external magnetic field under the effect of various plasma parameters. Further, the device is equipped with advanced imaging diagnostics for studying many other interesting phenomena such as dust oscillations, three-dimensional crystalline structures, dust rotation, etc. The device is quite flexible to accommodate many innovative experiments. Detailed design of the device, its diagnostics capabilities and theadvanced image analysis techniques are presented in this paper.