Self-Organized Pattern Formation and Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Filaments in Strongly Magnetized Plasmas

Previous experiments [1], [2] have shown that low temperature, low density, capacitively coupled rf-plasmas can form self-organized patterns and filamentary structures when the plasmas are strongly magnetized (where both the electron and the ion gyro radii become smaller than the respective collisional mean free paths). These filaments appear as bright elongated structures parallel to the magnetic field, representing non-uniformities in the plasma light emission. When observed from the top, they can have different shapes such as circular and/or multi-arm spirals (resembling different azimuthal eigenmodes). We have started characterizing several aspects of the very rich spatiotemporal dynamics associated with these filaments. More recently, various novel confinement schemes and fast imaging are being used to study these filamentary structures with unprecedented detail. This presentation will give an overview of the recent experimental efforts in the Magnetized Dusty Plasma Experiment (MDPX) at Auburn University, in trying to characterize and understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of these filamentary patterns, for both unconfined and confined configurations.