Characterization of injected aluminum oxide nanoparticle clouds in an rf discharge

An experimental setup to deagglomerate and insert nanoparticles into a radio frequency discharge has been developed to confine defined aluminum oxide nanoparticles in a dusty plasma. For the confined particle clouds we have measured the spatially resolved in situ size and density distributions. Implementing the whole plasma chamber into the sample volume of an FTIR spectrometer the infrared spectrum of the confined aluminum oxide nanoparticles has been obtained. We have investigated the dependency of the absorbance of the nanoparticles in terms of plasma power, pressure and cloud shape. The particles’ infrared phonon resonance has been identified.