Abstract
The rotation of Coulomb clusters with different numbers of micron-sized particles is studied experimentally in inductively coupled magnetised dusty plasma. When an external axial magnetic field was applied to dust Coulomb clusters, the clusters were observed to be rotating as a rigid body in the left-handed direction. We found the cluster rotation to be dependent on the particle number and configuration. Thus, the threshold magnetic field strength Bth at which the cluster would rotate decreased as the number of particles N increased and can be expressed by Bth = 200/N2. We also show that angular velocity ω depends on the magnetic field strength B as exp(–23/N)B8.3/N1.5.
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