Experimental quiescent drifting dusty plasmas and temporal dust acoustic wave growth

We report on dust acoustic wave growth rate measurements taken in a dc (anode glow) discharge plasma device. By introducing a mesh with a variable bias 12–17 cm from the anode, we developed a technique to produce a drifting dusty plasma. A secondary dust cloud, free of dust acoustic waves, was trapped adjacent to the anode side of the mesh. When the mesh was returned to its floating potential, the secondary cloud was released and streamed towards the anode and primary dust cloud, spontaneously exciting dust acoustic waves. The amplitude growth of the excited dust acoustic waves was measured directly along with the wavelength and Doppler shifted frequency. These measurements were compared to fluid and kinetic dust acoustic wave theories. As the wave growth saturated a transition from linear to nonlinear waves was observed. The merging of the secondary and primary dust clouds was also observed.