Effect of thermophoretic forces on the formation of ordered structures of macroparticles in a thermal plasma

摘要

The thermophoretic interaction of macroparticles and its effect on the formation of ordered structures of macroparticles in plasma was studied. It was shown that coexistence of regions with a chaotic arrangement of particles and regions of ordered structures is typical of a thermal plasma with strong interaction of the macroparticles. Computer simulation of a system of strongly interacting macroparticles, taking account of the thermophoretic interaction of the particles, was performed. The results showed that the thermophoretic attractive forces explain the form of the spatial nonuniformity associated with the grouping of particles in small domains. The experimentally obtained correlation function was very close to the correlation function obtained in the computer simulation.