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Updated: May 4, 2026

Microparticle Manipulation by Standing Surface Acoustic Waves with Dual-frequency Excitations
Published on: August 21, 2018
Absolute measurement of the total ion-drag force on a single plasma-confined microparticle at the void edge under
J Beckers1, D J M Trienekens1, G M W Kroesen1
1Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Applied Physics, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Abstract:
We present an absolute measurement of the total ion-drag force on one single microparticle at the edge of the dust free region in low pressure complex plasmas: the void. In order to do so, the particle confinement position was monitored as a function of the gas pressure for two particle sizes under normal gravity conditions and under microgravity conditions during parabolic flights. At the border of the void, the ion-drag force on a particle with a radius of 4.90 μm appeared to be (3.6±0.3)×10(-12) N.
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