Experimental observation of self excited co--rotating multiple vortices in a dusty plasma with inhomogeneous plasma background

Abstract

We report an experimental observation of multiple co--rotating vortices in a extended dust column in the background of non--uniform diffused plasma. Inductively coupled RF discharge is initiated in the background of argon gas in the source region which later found to diffuse in the main experimental chamber. A secondary DC glow discharge plasma is produced to introduce the dust particles into the plasma. These micron sized poly-disperse dust particles get charged in the plasma environment and transported by the ambipolar electric field of the diffused plasma and found to confine in the potential well, where the resultant electric field of the diffused plasma (ambipolar E--field) and glass wall charging (sheath E--field) hold the micron sized particles against the gravity. Multiple co--rotating (anti--clockwise) dust vortices are observed in the dust cloud for a particular discharge condition. The transition from multiple to single dust vortex is observed when input RF power is lowered. Occurrence of these vortices are explained on the basis of the charge gradient of dust particles which is orthogonal to the ion drag force. The charge gradient is a consequence of the plasma inhomogeneity along the dust cloud length. The detailed nature and the reason for multiple vortices are still under investigation through further experiments, however, preliminary qualitative understanding is discussed based on characteristic scale length of dust vortex. There is a characteristic size of the vortex in the dusty plasma so that multiple vortices is possible to form in the extended dusty plasma with inhomogeneous plasma background. The experimental results on the vortex motion of particles are compared with a theoretical model and found some agreement.