Pearl-necklace-like structures of microparticle strings observed in a dc complex plasma

摘要

The observation of a well-developed treelike string structure supported by a gas flow in a three-dimensional dcncomplex plasma is presented. The dynamically stable strings, comprising 10–20 particles, were up to 5 mm long.nThe experiments were performed using neon gas at a pressure of 100 Pa and melamine-formaldehyde particlesnwith a diameter of 3.43 μm. Inside the discharge glass tube a nozzle had been built in to supply the controllablengas (plasma) flux intensity distribution along the tube. The walls of the nozzle were transparent for the laser lightnilluminating the particles. That gave the opportunity to closely study the particle dynamics deep inside the nozzle.