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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Experimental Methods of Dust Charging and Mobilization on Surfaces with Exposure to Ultraviolet Radiation or Plasmas
Published on: April 3, 2018
Experimental demonstration of plasma-drag acceleration of a dust cloud to hypervelocities
C M Ticoş1, Zhehui Wang, G A Wurden
1Los Alamos National Laboratory, Plasma Physics Group P-24, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
Abstract:
Simultaneous acceleration of hundreds of dust particles to hypervelocities by collimated plasma flows ejected from a coaxial gun is demonstrated. Graphite and diamond grains with radii between 5 and 30 microm, and flying at speeds up to 3.7 km/s, have been recorded with a high-speed camera. The observations agree well with a model for plasma-drag acceleration of microparticles much larger than the plasma screening length.
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