Morphology and Self-induced Motioin of Particles in Plasmas

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dietmar Block
• Subject Area: Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 421052875

This project is the successor of DFG project entitled 'Change of Size and Morphology of Particles in Plasmas'. Despite of the corona pandemic and restricted access to the laboratories a number of important results have been obtained. We succeeded to realize an optimized measurement setup which allows to measure size as well as refractive index of the particles with high precision and good temporal resolution during plasma operation. The etch rates were found to rely on the ambient oxygen concentration and morphological changes of the particle surface were detected. Further, we are able to detect particles which are spinning at a rate of up to several hundred Hertz.In the new funding period we want to address important questions concerning non-spherical and coated/core-shell particles. The focus is here on self-induced motion of particles and how surface properties affect/enable this motion.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants