Coulomb stable structures of charged dust particles in a dynamical trap at atmospheric pressure in air

Abstract

A mathematical simulation of a dust particle's behavior in the electrodynamic linear quadrupole trap with closing end electrodes allowed us to reveal several features of the phenomena. Regions of stable confinement of a single particle, in dependence of frequency and charge-to-mass ratio, were determined. With an increase of the medium's dynamical viscosity, the region for confining charged particles by the trap becomes wider. We obtained values of the maximum quantities of charged particles confined by the trap at atmospheric pressure in air. Firstly, we presented observations of ordered Coulomb structures of charged dust particles obtained in the quadrupole trap in air at atmospheric pressure. The structures consisted of positively charged oxide aluminum particles 10–15 μ m in size and hollow glass microspheres 30–50 μ m in diameter. The ordered structure could contain particles of different sizes and charges. The trap could confine a limited number of charged particles. The ordered structures of charged micro-particles obtained in the experiments can be used to study Coulomb systems without neutralizing the plasma background and action of ion and electron flows, which are always present in non-homogeneous plasma.