Interdisciplinary research with complex plasmas

Abstract

In this topical review we combine results of research from the field of complex plasmas and colloidal dispersions. This research has opened the way to study strong coupling phenomena in real space and time at the most fundamental kinetic level. The physics of complex plasmas is dominated by the dynamics of slow moving and individually visible microparticles. In contrast to colloidal suspensions, where the fluid background medium results in huge overdamping, the neutral gas background medium in complex plasmas introduces only very little damping so that processes at all relevant time scales can be studied. This is of particular importance for some of the most outstanding questions in the self-organization of matter and critical phenomena. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.