Paramagnetic dust particles in rf-plasmas with weak external magnetic fields

Abstract

Experimental studies on dusty plasmas containing systems of (super-)paramagnetic dust particles are presented. In our experiments, external (homogeneous as well as inhomogeneous) magnetic fields in the mT range are applied to study the effect on single particles or few-particle systems that are trapped inside the sheath region. The behavior of the paramagnetic dust particles is considerably different than that of dielectric plastic particles, which are widely used in dusty plasmas. It is revealed that especially non-magnetic contributions play an important role in the interaction between superparamagnetic particles.

Keywords

• dusty plasmas
• paramagnetic particles
• magnetic fields
• 52.27.Lw
• 52.70.Ds