Dust Transport in a Low Temperature Plasma*

Our efforts have been the realization of controlled, “boundary free” transport of plasma embedded dust (microparticles) across a horizontal surface using plasma modulations. Our work expands upon previous studies [1] which used a spatially propagating pattern of low frequency signals applied to consecutive segments of a rectangular striped electrode. Different than in the cited work, we introduced a cylindrically symmetric segmented electrode package, allowing for a continuous, boundary-free flow pattern. Using our dedicated plasma chamber as a test bed, we have iterated on a variety of electrode designs to understand and optimize the manipulation of the floating dust. We also continue our exploration of integrating the RF plasma generation with the transport manipulation system. Ultimately, we anticipate utilizing this new dust transport tool to study dust flow/shear flow kinetics on their “atomic” scale, as well as its interaction with the environment (including in the presence of an external magnetic field). Traveling plasma modulations, such as studied here, further bear a huge potential in applications: especially where dust mitigation is required such as semiconductor production or for human exploration of the moon and beyond.

[1] Li, Y. F., Jiang, K., Thomas, H. M., & Morfill, G. E. (2010, June). Dust removal in radio‐frequency plasmas by a traveling potential modulation. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 1242, No. 1, pp. 109-116). American Institute of Physics.