Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T11:37:30.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

New technique for levitating solid particles using a proton beam

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

Nebil Y. Misconi
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Blvd., Orlando, Florida 32816, USA

Abstract

A new technique for levitating solid particles inside a vacuum chamber is developed using a proton beam. This new technique differs from the classical laser-levitation technique invented by Ashkin in that it does not heat up light-absorbing levitated particles to vaporization. This unique property of the method will make it possible to levitate real interplanetary dust particles in a vacuum chamber and study their spin-up dynamics in a ground-based laboratory. It is found that a flux of protons from a proton gun of ~1015 cm–2 sec–1 is needed to levitate a 10-mm particle. Confinement of the levitated particle can be achieved by a Z or θ pinch to create a gravity well, or by making the beam profile doughnut in shape.

Type
Regular Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ashkin, A. 1970 Phys. Rev. Lett. 24(4), 156.Google Scholar
Ashkin, A. 1980 Science 210(4474), 1081.Google Scholar
Ashkin, A. & Dziedzic, J.M. 1974 App. Phys. Lett. 24(12), 586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashkin, A. & Dziedzic, J.M. 1978 Personal communications.Google Scholar
Bandermann, L.W. 1967 Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Maryland, Technical Report No. 771, December.Google Scholar
Beams, J.W. 1950 Rev. Sci. Instrum. 21, 182.Google Scholar
Beams, J.W. 1954 Science 120, 619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belton, M.J.S. 1966 Science 151, 35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brownlee, D.E. et al. 1980 Proc. IAU Sympos. No. 90, Solid Particles In The Solar System (D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Boston, London).Google Scholar
Day, D.E. & Ray, C.S. 1986 Opportunities for Academic Research in a Low-Gravity Environment, Hazelrigg, G.A. and Reynolds, J.M., eds. (Amer. Inst. Aeronaut. Astronautics, New York), p. 165.Google Scholar
Frost, R.T. & Change, C.W. 1982 Materials Processing the Reduced Gravity Environment of Space, Rindome, G.E., ed. (Elsevier Science Publishing Company, New York), p. 71.Google Scholar
Gustafson, B.A.S. & Misconi, N.Y. 1979 Nature 282, 276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagerman, D.C. & Osher, J.E. 1973 Rev. Sci. Instr. 34, 56.Google Scholar
Krall, N.A. & Trivelpiece, A.W. 1973 Principles of Plasma Physics (McGraw Hill, New York).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lafton, J.P.J. 1980 IAU Symp. No. 90, Solid Particles in the Solar System, Halliday, I. and McIntosh, B.A., eds., (D. Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands), p. 303.Google Scholar
Lewittes, M. & Arnold, S. 1982 Appl. Phys. Lett. 54(6), 455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makin, B. et al. 1986 IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl. IA-22(3), 542.Google Scholar
Marshall, J. 1960 Phys. Fluids 3, 135.Google Scholar
Misconi, N.Y. 1975 Solar Flare Effects on the Zodiacal Light, Ph.D. Dissertation, State University of New York at Albany.Google Scholar
Misconi, N.Y. 1976 Astron. Astrophys. 51, 357.Google Scholar
Misconi, N.Y. 1993 J. Geophys. R. 98(A11), 18951.Google Scholar
Misconi, N.Y. et al. 1990 Appl. Opt. 29(15), 2276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, R.L. & Roumeliotis, G. 1992 Eruptive Solar Flares, IAU Colloq. 133, p. 69.Google Scholar
Naumann, R. J. & Ellman, D.D. 1986 Materials Sciences in Space, A Contribution to the Scientific Basis of Space Processing, Feuerbacher, B., Hamacher, H., and Naumann, R.J., eds. (Springer-Verlag, New York), p. 294.Google Scholar
Opik, E.J. 1956 Irish Astron. J. 4, 84.Google Scholar
Paddack, S.J. 1973 Ph.D. Dissertation, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Paddack, S.J. & Rhee, J.W. 1975 Geophys. Res. Lett. 2(9), 365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poynting, H.J. 1903 Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 202, 525.Google Scholar
Rhee, J.W. 1967 NASA SP 150, p. 291.Google Scholar
Rhim, W.K. et al. 1985 Rev. Sci. Instrum. 56(2), 307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, H.P. 1937 Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 97, 423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss-Wrana, K. et al. 1985 Properties and Interactions of Interplanetary Dust, Giese, R.H. and Lamy, P., eds. (D. Reidel, Dordrecht), p. 219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whymark, R. et al. 1979 AIAA Paper No. 79–0370, 17th Aerospace Sciences Meeting, New Orleans, LA.Google Scholar
Withbroe, G.L. 1988 Astrophys. J. 325, 442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wyatt, S.P. 1969 Planet. Space Sci. 17, 155.Google Scholar