Experiments on wake structures behind a microparticle in a magnetized plasma flow

The wake behind a spherical microparticle in a magnetized ion flow is studied experimentally by analyzing the arrangement of a pair of particles. It is shown that there are two stable particle arrangements at intermediate magnetic inductions, whereas only oblique (horizontal) particle configurations are found at the highest magnetic field. Self-consistent collisional molecular dynamics simulations of the particle system show that the underlying mechanism of these arrangements is the weakening of attractive wake forces by the increasing magnetic field. Plasma instabilities provide a trigger for the onset of the transition between the two different arrangements. Furthermore, the course of the transition is qualitatively explained by the charge variation of the downstream particle in the wake of the upstream particle. In addition, a thorough analysis of the sheath by means of particle-in-cell simulations in combination with particle resonance measurements yields consistent values of the particle mass and charge, as well as the levitating electric field and ion flow velocity. Published by AIP Publishing.