Measurements of spatially growing dust acoustic waves in a dc glow discharge plasma

In this paper, an experiment is performed on dust acoustic waves in a dc glow discharge plasma. Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (stereo-PIV) techniques are used to make measurements of the dust acoustic waves. These stereo-PIV measurements reveal the spatial growth of the waves over three to six wavelengths before reaching a saturated level. Experimental measurements are shown to agree with a simple model for spatially varying waves.