Non‐Ideal Dust Structures in Cryogenic Complex Plasmas

The possibility of the formation of dust structures in cryogenic environment at 4.2‐77 K was proved experimentally in the previous researches of cryogenic complex (dusty) plasma 1–5]. It was revealed from the experiments, among others, that the dust structures with high concentration of dust particles can be formed, in which interparticle distance is comparable with particle size ‐ super dense dusty plasma structures. Such structures had exotic properties such as globular (spherical) form, free boundaries, etc. In the present work new results on the experimental investigations of new phenomenon of spheroidizing ‐ process of the dust structure transition to compact globular shape at cryogenic temperatures ‐ were presented. Possible nature of such phenomenon is discussed (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)