Abstract
The research field of complex (dusty) plasmas has seen a sustained rapid growth in recent years. This can be attributed to the remarkable discovery of new states of (soft) matter - the liquid and crystalline plasmas - in 1994. Following this discovery, many researchers throughout the world decided to explore and investigate the new physics that was beckoning. Now the field produces about one scientific publication per day, many links to other disciplines are being forged (e.g. colloid physics, solid state, granular media, environmental research, etc) and application potentials are under investigation, too (e.g. nanostructured materials, plasma cleaning devices, adaptive electrodes, particle manipulation and modification, etc). The young field of complex (dusty) plasmas is beginning to come of age. This seemed like an excellent time to produce a Focus Issue on the topic. Through the diversity of the contributions the reader is able to get a synoptic view of the field which, of course, a review article cannot provide. The papers cover basic aspects of dust-plasma interactions in the laboratory, under microgravity conditions and in space, as well as the application of plasma-processed micro-particles. The contributions focus on the latest scientific advances in complex plasmas. Judging from the huge response to the announcement of the Focus Issue in New Journal of Physics, we, the editors, conclude that the field is still growing and that the timing for the Focus Issue is just right!
We would like to express our appreciation to Alexander Bradshaw who initiated this Focus Issue. Finally, we wish to thank the editorial team, especially Tim Smith, the many referees and the contributors for their excellent work.
Focus on Complex (Dusty) Plasmas Contents
Microscopic visco-elastic motions of narrow two-dimensional dust Coulomb liquids under modulated shear stress Ming-Hua Chang and Lin I
Solitons, shocks and vortices in dusty plasmas P K Shukla and A A Mamun
Mutual interactions of magnetized particles in complex plasmas V V Yaroshenko, G E Morfill, D Samsonov and S V Vladimirov
Formation and behaviour of dust particle clouds in a radio-frequency discharge: results in the laboratory and under microgravity conditions M Mikikian, L Boufendi, A Bouchoule, H M Thomas, G E Morfill, A P Nefedov, V E Fortov and the PKE-Nefedov team
Modelling of two differently sized dust species in plasmas under micro-gravity M R Akdim, W J Goedheer and R P Dahiya
Dust-acoustic modes in plasmas with dust distributions and charge fluctuations Frank Verheest, Gerald Jacobs and Tom Cattaert
Zonal winds and dipolar vortices in a rotating dusty magnetoplasma P K Shukla, P K Dwivedi and L Stenflo
Structural, dynamical and melting properties of two-dimensional clusters of complex plasmas Minghui Kong, B Partoens and F M Peeters
Levitation and agglomeration of magnetic grains in a complex (dusty) plasma with magnetic field D Samsonov, S Zhdanov, G Morfill and V Steinberg
A unified view of acoustic-electrostatic solitons in complex plasmas J F McKenzie and T B Doyle
New microscopic and macroscopic variables in dusty plasmas P P J M Schram, S A Trigger and A G Zagorodny
A fluid model for colloidal plasmas under microgravity conditions G Gozadinos, A V Ivlev and J P Boeuf
PKE-Nefedov: plasma crystal experiments on the International Space Station Anatoli P Nefedov, Gregor E Morfill, Vladimir E Fortov, Hubertus M Thomas, Hermann Rothermel, Tanja Hagl, Alexei V Ivlev, Milenko Zuzic, Boris A Klumov, Andrey M Lipaev, Vladimir I Molotkov, Oleg F Petrov, Yuri P Gidzenko, Sergey K Krikalev, William Shepherd, Alexandr I Ivanov, Maria Roth, Horst Binnenbruck, John A Goree and Yuri P Semenov
Dust as a surfactant A M Ignatov, P P J M Schram and S A Trigger
Optimization of plasma parameters for the production of silicon nano-crystals Nihed Chaâbane, Andriy V Kharchenko, Holger Vach and Pere Roca i Cabarrocas
In situ nanoparticle diagnostics by multi-wavelength Rayleigh-Mie scattering ellipsometry G Gebauer and J Winter
Hα emission in the presence of dust in an Ar-C2H2 radio-frequency discharge I Stefanovic, E Kovacevic, J Berndt and J Winter
Excitation of dipole oscillons in a dusty plasma containing elongated dust rods M Salimullah, P K Shukla, I Sandberg and G E Morfill
Plasma interaction with microbes M Laroussi, D A Mendis and M Rosenberg
Laboratory-device configurations for investigating new dusty-plasma equilibria M E Koepke and N Sato
Note on the charging and spinning of dust particles in complex plasmas in a strong magnetic field V N Tsytovich, N Sato and G E Morfill
Controlled interactions of two microparticle clouds in a dc glow discharge dusty (complex) plasma E Thomas Jr
Collision-dominated dust sheaths and voids - observations in micro-gravity experiments and numerical investigation of the force balance relations V N Tsytovich, G Morfill, U Konopka and H Thomas
Experimental evidence for electrostatic discharging of dust near the surface of Mars C E Krauss, M Horányi and S Robertson
Large-scale steady-state structure of a 2D plasma crystal S Zhdanov, R A Quinn, D Samsonov and G E Morfill
The rotation of planar-2 to planar-12 dust clusters in an axial magnetic field Felix Cheung, Alex Samarian and Brian James
Instability of shear waves in a nonuniform dusty plasma G Sorasio, P K Shukla and D P Resendes
Self-excited motions in dusty plasmas with gradient of charge of macroparticles O S Vaulina, A A Samarian, O F Petrov, B W James and V E Fortov
The plasma-sheath boundary near the adaptive electrode as traced by particles B M Annaratone, M Glier, T Stuffler, M Raif, H M Thomas and G E Morfill
Examples for application and diagnostics in plasma–powder interaction H Kersten, R Wiese, G Thieme, M Fröhlich, A Kopitov, D Bojic, F Scholze, H Neumann, M Quaas, H Wulff and R Hippler
Dynamics of dust grains in an electron–dust plasma induced by solar radiation under microgravity conditions V E Fortov, A P Nefedov, O S Vaulina, O F Petrov, I E Dranzhevski, A M Lipaev and Yu P Semenov
The dynamics of macroparticles in a direct current glow discharge plasma under micro-gravity conditions A P Nefedov, O S Vaulina, O F Petrov, V I Molotkov, V M Torchinskii, V E Fortov, A V Chernyshev, A M Lipaev, A I Ivanov, A Yu Kaleri, Yu P Semenov and S V Zaletin
Dynamic vortex dust structures in a nuclear-track plasma V A Rykov, A V Khudyakov, V S Filinov, V I Vladimirov, L V Deputatova, D V Krutov and V E Fortov
Electrodynamic structure of charged dust clouds in the earth's middle atmosphere W A Scales and G Ganguli
Greg Morfill, Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany Holger Kersten, Institut für Niedertemperatur-Plasmaphysik e.V. Greifswald, Germany