Dust interferometers in plasmas M. Chaudhuri1∗, V. Nosenko2, H. M. Thomas2 1School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Harvard University, USA and 2Forschungsgruppe Komplexe Plasmen, Deutsches Zentrum fu¨r Luft- und Raumfahrt, D-82234, Weßling, Germany An interferometric imaging technique has been proposed to instantly measure the diameter of individual spherical dust particles suspended in a gas discharge plasma. The technique is based on the defocused image analysis of both spherical particles and their binary agglomerates. Above a critical diameter, the defocused images of spherical particles contain stationary interference fringe patterns and the fringe number increases with particle diameters. Below this critical diameter, the particle size has been measured using the rotational interference fringe patterns which appear 6 only on the defocused images of binary agglomerates. In this case, a lower cut-off limit of particle 1 diameter has been predicted, below which no such rotational fringe patterns are observed for the 0 binary agglomerates. The method can be useful as a diagnostics for complex plasma experiments 2 on earth as well as under microgravity condition. n a PACSnumbers: 07.60.Ly,42.25.Hz,52.27.Lw,52.70.Kz,64.70.Dv,95.55.Br J 9 2 Understanding strongly correlated phenomena such as sequence of images obtained by video microscopy tech- crystal and liquid structures, melting dynamics, crystal- nique. Several other techniques with different features ] lization, homogeneous nucleation, dendrites, glass tran- havealsobeenused,suchas,Particle-Image-Velocimetry h sition, etc. in a classical many body systems are out- (PIV) [42, 43], digital in-line holography [44], color gra- p - standing topics of practical importance in material sci- dient method [45], stereoscopy [46], etc. However to the m ence [1–4]. Colloids have long been used as a model best of our knowledge, there exists no technique in com- s system to investigate such processes where particles of plex plasmas to identify individual particles shape and a different shapes (sphere, cube, ellipsoid, agglomerates, size instantly during experiments. l p etc.) can be synthesized based on experimental require- . ments [5–11]. The surfaces of colloidal particles can be s c treatedchemicallytoexplorewiderangeofinter-particle i interactions(repulsivetoattractive,hardspheretoultra- s y soft) and associated tunable, collective, self-organized h processes. Different high resolution imaging techniques, p suchaslaserscanningconfocalmicroscope(LSCM),elec- [ tronmicroscopyoratomicforcemicroscopy(AFM)tech- 1 niquescanbeusedtomeasuresizeandshapeofcolloidal v particlesprecisely. Othertechniquesuchasdynamiclight 7 scattering has also been used to measure hydrodynamic 1 size of the particles in a dilute solution. In recent times, 0 it is revealed that colloids share unique complementary 0 featureswithcomplex(dusty)plasmawhichisbeingcon- 0 . sidered as the plasma state of soft matter [12–14]. How- 2 ever, unlike colloids where the particle dynamics is over 0 damped due to viscous solvents, the highly charged solid FIG. 1: Sketch of the experimental conditions to prepare 6 particles in complex plasmas levitate in the background quasi-two-dimensional suspension of spherical dust particles 1 : of weakly ionized gas [15–17]. Basic understanding of and binary agglomerates in the background of weakly ion- v plasma-particle interactions are essential to tune inter- ized plasmas. The microparticles are trapped in the weak Xi particleinteractionsandrelevantself-organizedcollective parabolic confinement potential above the rf electrode and are illuminated with a horizontal laser sheet. Unlike spheri- r phenomenaincomplexplasmas[18–24]. Thebackground cal particles, the binary agglomerates are identified with ro- a neutralgaspressurecanbecontrolledpreciselytoachieve tational interference fringe pattern on their defocus images almost undamped particle dynamics which makes com- (markedasstripedparticleontopviewimage). Thespherical plex plasma a unique model system to explore classical particlesandbinaryagglomerateslevitateatdifferentheights many body phenomena at the “atomistic” level [14, 25]. with separation ‘h’ as shown. Different types of unique experiments have been per- formedatgroundbasedlaboratoriesonearth[26–28,28– Recently defocus imaging technique has been used 36],aswellasundermicrogravityconditiononboard“In- as an useful diagnostic to identify binary agglomerates ternational Space Station (ISS)” [37–41]. Typically ex- in complex plasma which contains rotating interference perimental data in complex plasmas is analyzed by us- fringe patterns on their defocus images [47]. Now, it ing standard particle location and tracking methods on is discovered that stationary interference fringes appear 2 on individual, bigger size, spherical particles. In such cases, a combination of rotational and stationary fringe patterns are the characteristic of binary agglomerates as shown in Fig. 2f. At some point, the rotational fringe pattern overlaps exactly on top of stationary fringe pat- terns which implies that inter-fringe spacings are iden- tical on defocus images for such spherical particles and their binary agglomerates. The goal of this work is to put forward an idea of using defocus imaging technique to measure diameter of individual spherical dust parti- cle instantly during experiments within some accuracy. Wehavetriedtoexploretheoriginofthefringepatterns for individual spherical dust particle which itself acts as an efficient interferometer. The fringe pattern becomes distinct as the particle diameter increases and there is a lowercut-off(∼9µm)belowwhichwedon’tobserveany suchfringes. Formediumsizeparticles,rotationalfringes FIG.2: (a)Sphericaldustparticleand(b)binaryagglomerate appear on binary agglomerates but very faint fringes ap- as observed through optical microscope. Scale bar is 5 µm. (c) Two dimensional plasma crystal made of spherical parti- pear on defocus images of individual spherical particles. cles as observed in a focused image using video microscopy. For smaller particles (below ∼ 5.5 µm) no fringes are (d) Defocused image of small particle (∼ 4.32 µm) where no observed at all on either spherical particles or on their fringepatternsareobservedneitheronsphericalparticlesnor binary agglomerates. onbinaryagglomerates. (e)Defocusedimagesofmediumsize The experiments were performed with a (modified) particles(∼7.16µm)whererotationalfringepatternsareob- GaseousElectronicsConference(GEC)chamber,inaca- servedonbinaryagglomeratesbutnotonsphericalparticles. pacitively coupled rf glow discharge at 13.56 MHz (see (f)Largeparticles(∼20µm)wherestationaryfringepatterns areobservedonsphericalparticlesandacombinationofrota- Fig. 1). The Argon pressure and the forward rf power tionalfringeontopofstationaryfringepatternsareobserved were kept at 1 Pa and at 20 Watt respectively. Parti- on their binary agglomerates. cles of different sizes and materials have been used for theexperiments: Melamineformaldehyde(MF)particles (mass density: 1.51gm/cm3, refractive index (RI): 1.68) with diameters (2r) of 4.32 µm, 7.16 µm, 8.42 µm, 9.19 µmand14.91±0.26µm;polystyrene(PS)particles(mass density: ∼ 1.05 gm/cm3, RI: 1.58) with a diameter of 11.35 µm and PMMA particles (mass density: ∼ 1.19 gm/cm3, RI:1.49)withdiametersof17.02±0.03µmand 20 µm. The particle suspension was illuminated with a horizontal sheet of red diode laser light (wavelength of 660 nm) and imaged through the top glass window with thePhotronFASTCAM1024PCIcameraoperatingata speedof60frames/secwithafieldofviewof1024x1024 pixels. Thefocallengthofthelensis105mmwithaper- turerange,f/2.8tof/32. Thecameralenswasequipped with a narrow-band interference filter to collect only the illumination laser light scattered by the particles. When injected in the plasma, both the spherical dust particles and their binary agglomerates become highly charged and form a quasi-two dimensional suspension above the lower electrode [47]. The binary agglomerates levitate just below the monolayer of spherical particles without forming vertical pairs so that all the particles can be viewed from top view camera as shown schemat- FIG. 3: (a) Schematic diagram of the observed phenomena. ically in Fig. 1. All the particles can be identified by The dust particle is illuminated by the laser light and its focussedanddefocusedimageshavebeenvisualizedbyavideo few bright pixels in a focused image due to laser light camera placed perpendicular to the laser beam. The fringe scattering. It is not possible to characterize the parti- pattern appears on defocused images due to the interference cle shape and size by looking at these focused images. of reflected and first order refracted light at 90o scattering But as we defocus the images, interesting new features angle. Schematics of ray diagram of reflected and first order areobserved: distinctinterferencefringepatternsappear refractedlightswithinthedustparticleareshownintheinset. on the defocused images of the particles [47]. Identical 3 fringe patterns are observed for particles with same di- ameter as shown in Fig. 2f. As we increase the particle size,thenumberoffringesalsoincreasesonthedefocused image of a single spherical particle and they become dis- tinct. The observed phenomena i.e. the appearance of stationary fringe pattern on bigger size, spherical dust particles in plasma environment has been explained in the framework of “Interferometric Laser Imaging (ILI)” techniquewhichisbasedon“Miescatteringtheory”and takes into account the interference of the scattered light fromasingletransparentparticle. Thereflectedandfirst orderrefractedraysinterferewitheachothertogenerate fringe patterns at the defocus plane. This technique has beenappliedbeforeformeasuring sizeofdropsandbub- bles (Interferometric Laser Imaging for Droplet Sizing (ILIDS)) in spray dryer systems, spark ignition engine, etc. as mentioned in Ref. [48] and references there in. Two glare points due to reflection and refraction from diametrically opposite positions can be observed at the focal plane if d> 50 µm. However, for d< 50 µm, ILI is themostsuitabletechniquetodetermineparticlesize. It istobenotedthatthereisalowerlimitofparticlediam- eterbelowwhichILIisinvalid: d ∼20λ/π whereλis min the wavelength of illumination laser. In our experiment, we use λ ∼ 660nm and hence d ∼ 4.20 µm. To cal- min culate the number of fringes observed on the defocused imageofasingleparticle,weselectaonepixelwidthhor- izontalregionofinterest(ROI)alongthediameteratthe centre of the particle image. The dark fringes are per- FIG. 4: (a) Overlap of rotational and stationary fringe pat- pendicular to the ROI. The intensity variation along the terns for a binary agglomerates. It shows that inter-fringe ROI exhibits several maxima and minima. As the par- spacings are same for both types of rings patterns. (b) Non- ticle size increases, the number of fringes increases and overlap fringe orientation for binary agglomerates where ro- tational fringes are oblique w.r.t stationary horizontal fringe hencenumberofmaxima/minimaincreases: N∼1.16for patterns. The intersection of these two types of fringes form 7.16 µm, N ∼ 1.58 for 9.19 µm, N ∼ 2.07 for 11.35 µm, local dark patches on defocused images as illustrated in the N ∼ 2.28 for 14.91 µm, N ∼ 2.88 for 17.02 µm, and N inset by the black dots. (c) Illustration to calculate num- ∼ 3.43 for 20 µm. It is to be noted that with increasing ber of fringes for 11.35 µm particle. In this case we consider particlesize,thewidthofeachpeakdecreasesandheight rotational fringe patterns with region of interest across the increases indicating distinct as well as sharp features of diameter and perpendicular the fringe orientation. Intensity fringe patterns. It is difficult to measure the fringe sep- variationalongtheROIhasbeenobservedwhereblackpixels aration for smaller particles due to the wider width of correspond fringe position. Fringe separation is determined fringes and they appear almost at two ends of ROI. as the distance between two maxima (or minima) of the in- tensitydistribution. Thenumberoffringeshasbeenobtained According to Lorentz-Mie theory, the light scattered bydividingthediameteroftheparticle(lengthofROI)with by a spherical particle is inhomogeneously distributed fringe separation. (d) Intensity variation for 11.35 µm diam- in space (oscillating function of the angle in the range eter particle. Similar calculations have been performed for 0 < θ < π) which depends on particle diameter, refrac- the bigger 20 µm diameter particles where stationary fringes tive index and incident light characteristics [49]. The areformedasshownin(e)and(f). Thefringepositionshave origin of these oscillations is due to interference between beenflippedtomakeclearvisualeffects. Itistobenotedthat therotationalinterferencefringeshapeforbinaryagglomerate reflected, refracted and diffracted rays coming out of the is not “exactly” vertical as observed in stationary fringes for particle and forms the basis of the Mie Scattering Inter- spherical particles which can be due to morphological effect. ferrometry. However, for bigger particle it was shown that simpler geometric analysis can be used as an al- ternate of complex Mie theory to estimate particle size ference between the reflected and refracted rays can be for a scattering angle centred around 90o. To analyze expressed as [50, 51]: the phenomenon, we consider all dust particles are per- (cid:32) (cid:114) (cid:33) fectly spherical and homogeneous. The interaction be- 2πd θ θ φ −φ = sin − m2+1−2mcos (1) tween laser beam and the particle is shown in Fig. 3. 0 1 λ 2 2 The total scattering light intensity is due to the sum of reflection and first order refraction rays. The phase dif- Aninfinitesimalvariationofthescatteringangleinduces 4 It is to be noted that the diameters for smaller par- 4 s ticles (7.16, 9.19 and 11.35 µm) have been estimated by e analyzingrotationalinterferencefringesondefocusedim- g n ages of their binary agglomerates. It is based on the fri3 conjecture that the same measurement technique as de- of scribedaboveforsphericalparticlesisalsoapplicablefor r defocused image analysis of binary agglomerates which e2 b contain rotational fringe patterns. This is due to the m fact that the inter-fringe spacing for rotational pattern u N andstationarypatternsaresameforbiggersizeparticles 1 where both patterns are visible. This simplified approxi- 0 5 10 15 20 25 mationagreeswellwithexperimentalobservations. How- Particle diameter (µm) ever, the full understanding of the source of these rotat- ingfringesisstillunknownandkeptforfuturework,but FIG. 5: Number of fringes (N) on defocused images of parti- theycertainlyrepresentthedynamicsignaturesofbinary clesincreaseswithparticlediameter(d). Redcirclesrepresent agglomerates. It is found that the estimated diameters themeasurementsusingstationaryfringepatternsonspheri- are sufficiently close to those of specified diameters with cal particles. The red dash line represents linear fit with the maximumtoleranceof∼14%for11.35µmparticlesand data and provides a lower limit d ∼ 9µm below which no c minimum of ∼ 2% for 14.91 µm particles. stationary fringe pattern on spherical particle is observable. Blue squares represent the measurement using fringe pattern on binary agglomerates. The solid line represents the best d (µm) Material RI Defocused N: # of d (µm) linear fit using all data points combining defocused image Specified (m) image fringes Estimated analysis of spherical particles and binary agglomerates, N = analysis 0.17d+0.01,whichprovidesanestimateofcriticaldiameterof 7.16 MF 1.68 BA 1.16 ± 0.09 7.43 ± 0.64 particled ∼5.8µmbelowwhichnorotationalfringepattern c on binary agglomerates is observable. 9.19 MF 1.68 BA 1.58 ± 0.05 10.12 ± 0.32 11.35 PS 1.58 BA 2.07 ± 0.09 12.90 ± 0.50 14.91 MF 1.68 SP, BA 2.28 ± 0.09 14.60 ± 0.52 a maximum or minimum light intensity variation when 17.02 PMMA 1.49 SP, BA 2.88 ± 0.15 17.57 ± 0.89 thephasedifferenceisequalto2π. So,theangularinter- 20 PMMA 1.49 SP, BA 3.43 ± 0.10 20.91 ± 0.61 fringespacing∆θcanberelatedtotheparticlediameter: −1 TABLE I: Particle diameter has been estimated using Eqn.4 2λ θ msinθ by counting the number of interference fringes (N) on de- ∆θ = cos + (cid:113) 2 (2) focused images of different spherical particles (SP) or binary d 2 m2+1−2mcosθ agglomerates(BA)ofdifferentrefractiveindices(m)butwith 2 same laser wavelength (λ ∼ 660nm) and collection angle If the scattering angle is of 90o then it can be assumed (α∼23o) that the incidence angle of the refracted ray on the par- ticleisclosetozeroandhencetheaboveequationcanbe simplified as, In conclusion, we have discussed a simple and useful method to estimate size of a spherical particle over a (cid:18) (cid:19) 2λ 1 wide size range by analyzing defocused images of both ∆θ = (3) d 1+ 1 spherical particles and their binary agglomerates. The m diameter of the spherical particle has been estimated for Thenumberoffringesonthedefocusedimageofaspher- the first time by counting the number of interference ical particle depends on the collection angle, α which is fringes and their separation in the framework of inter- equaltotheproductofnumberoffringesN andangular ferometric laser imaging methods. The stationary fringe fringe spacing, ∆θ: pattern is distinct for bigger spherical particles but they are not clearly visible for medium size particles. To (cid:18) (cid:19) 2λN 1 overcome this problem, the separation of the rotating d= (4) α 1+ 1 fringes for the binary agglomerates has been used in m this size range. The number of fringes increases with TheresultshavebeendescribedinTable-1inwhichthe particlesizeandthereexiststwocriticaldiametersbelow left most column represents the diameter of the particles which we do not observe any stationary and rotational as specified by the manufacturer. Then Eqn. 4 has been fringe patterns. 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