Photophoretic force measurement on microparticles in binary complex plasmas

Abstract

This article presents a method to measure the photophoretic force on microparticles in complex plasmas. A laser heating setup is used to increase the kinetic temperatures of binary mixtures composed of melamine-formaldehyde (MF) and silica (SiO2) particles. The temperature gain of both particle species due to the additional thermal reservoir is compared to a laser force model. Contributions of radiation pressure and photophoretic forces are determined through a variation of neutral gas pressure and application of Lorenz-Mie theory. The photophoretic force is found to be significant for MF particles at typical conditions in complex plasma experiments.