Perspective: The dusty plasma experiments a learning tool for physics graduate students

Abstract

The plasma is an ionized gas that responses collectively to any external (or internal) perturbations. Introducing micron-sized solid dust grains into plasma makes it more interesting. The solid grains acquire large negative charges on their surface and exhibits collective behavior similar to the ambient plasma medium. Some remarkable features of the charged dust grain medium (dusty plasma) allow us to use it as a model system to understand some complex phenomena at a microscopic level. In this perspective paper, the author highlights the role of dusty plasma experiments as a learning tool at undergraduate and post-graduate physics programs. The students could have great opportunities to understand some basic physical phenomena as well as to learn many advanced data analysis tools and techniques by performing dusty plasma experiments. How a single dusty plasma experimental device at a physics laboratory can help undergraduate and post-graduate students in the learning process is discussed.

arXiv comment13,10

References in corpus (7)

• Experimental study of nonlinear dust acoustic solitary waves in a dusty plasma
• 3-Dimensional Dusty Plasma in a Strong Magnetic Field: Observation of Rotating Dust Tori
• Experimental observation of self excited co--rotating multiple vortices in a dusty plasma with inhomogeneous plasma background
• Dusty Plasma Correlation Function Experiment
• Influence of External Magnetic Field on Dust$-$Acoustic Waves in a Capacitive RF Discharge
• Propagation characteristics of dust$-$acoustic waves in presence of a floating cylindrical object in the DC discharge plasma
• Transport and trapping of dust particles in a potential well created by inductively coupled diffused plasma