Threshold Phenomena in a Throbbing Complex Plasma
In complex plasmas, the trapped dust particle cloud is often characterized by a central dust-free region ('void'). The void induces a spatial inhomogeneity of the dust particle distribution and is at the origin of many intricate unstable phenomena. One type of this kind of behavior is the so-called heartbeat instability consisting of successive contractions and expansions of the void. This instability is characterized by a strong nonlinear dynamics which can reveal the occurrence of incomplete sequences corresponding to failed contractions. Experimental results based on high-speed imaging are presented for the first time and underline this threshold effect in both the dust cloud motion and the evolution of the plasma light emission.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗