Research activities
The charged particle motion in a one component plasma at different coupling strengths and at shielding parameter value of 0.1. Particles interact via pairwise Debye–Hückel potential.
Strongly Coupled Plasma
Plasmas with the average potential energy comparable to or exceeding the average kinetic energy of component species are "Strongly Coupled." SCPs can reflect in different states of matter and mostly with mixed traits. Their thermodynamics and transport show dependence on their coupling strength. Examples are ultracold plasmas, dense plasmas, and dusty plasmas.
First glimpse of dusty plasma observed in Shivalik Plasma Laboratory @ IIT Jammu.
Dusty Plasma
Electrons, ions, highly charged dust grains, and neutral atoms or molecules together form the multispecies "Dusty" plasma. Due to the high charge, dust species are typically found in strongly coupled states and show traits like solid, liquid, and gas. As the dynamics of dusty plasma are slow (~Hz) and scalelength is large (~cm), different physical phenomena can be visualized through camera diagnostics. It makes dusty plasma an excellent test-bed to demonstrate other physics properties that otherwise are not-so-easy to diagnose.
Cold Atmospheric Plasma
Cold atmospheric plasmas are the typical ones with temperatures <1 eV and are created at atmospheric pressure. Such plasmas differ from ones that have been talked about for fusion purposes or the ones in any astrophysical scenario. These plasmas are successfully helping in getting better growth in agriculture, preserving fluids and vegetables, sanitization, medicinal purposes including cancer therapy and dental procedures, textile industry, etc., to count a few.