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Electron magnetization effects on carbonaceous dusty nanoparticles grown in $Ar/C_2H_2$ capacitively coupled nonthermal plasma

Plasma Physics 2025-05-01 v1

Abstract

Carbonaceous dusty nanoparticles spontaneously grow in nonthermal plasmas from a gas mixture of argon and acetylene. These particles levitate and grow within the bulk plasma for a duration known as the growth cycle (TcT_c), after which they gradually move away. In experiments operating at 500 milliTorr, the particles reach a maximum radius of approximately 250 nm for TcT_c \sim 121 s. However, the introduction of weak magnetic fields reduces both the maximum radius and TcT_c. The modified electron Hall parameter (HeH_e'), which quantifies the degree of electron magnetization, increases linearly with the magnetic field strength, transitioning from unmagnetized electrons (He<1H_e' < 1) to magnetized electrons (He>1H_e' > 1). TcT_c gradually decreases to around 40 s until He1H_e' \sim 1 at approximately 330 Gauss, after which it remains roughly constant for fields up to about 1020 Gauss. Additionally, with increasing magnetic field strength, the dust growth rate initially decreases to He1H_e' \sim 1, then increases slightly again. These results demonstrate that the onset of electron magnetization at can control the growth of nanoparticles from chemical precursors in nonthermal plasmas, which is relevant for industrial applications.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.21217,
  title  = {Electron magnetization effects on carbonaceous dusty nanoparticles grown in $Ar/C_2H_2$ capacitively coupled nonthermal plasma},
  author = {Bhavesh Ramkorun and Saikat C. Thakur and Ryan B. Comes and Edward Thomas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.21217},
  year   = {2025}
}