Experimental demonstration of plasma-drag acceleration of a dust cloud to hypervelocities.
Simultaneous acceleration of hundreds of dust particles to hypervelocities by collimated plasma flows ejected from a coaxial gun is demonstrated. Graphite and diamond grains with radii between 5 and 30 microm, and flying at speeds up to 3.7 km/s, have been recorded with a high-speed camera. The observations agree well with a model for plasma-drag acceleration of microparticles much larger than the plasma screening length.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Plasma Physics Group P-24, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
C M
CM
Ticoş
Zhehui
Z
Wang
G A
GA
Wurden
J L
JL
Kline
D S
DS
Montgomery
L A
LA
Dorf
P K
PK
Shukla