Flow of Dusty Plasma Around an Obstacle

Single frame video images of dusty plasmas flowing around a conducting wire are presented in this paper. The images were obtained by laser illumination of the dust suspension with the reflected light recorded using a fast video camera. The images from two different configurations are shown. The first image records the formation of a bow shock formed when a supersonic dust cloud impinges on a thin-wire biased to repel the negatively charged dust. The second image shows the deflection of a thin stream of dust particles around a negatively charged wire.