Evolution of Dust Clouds in Afterglow Plasmas

The observations of the evolution of dust clouds in afterglow plasmas at various neutral pressures are presented. Four cases were studied which showed a large variation in the cloud dynamics. In two cases, the clouds responded by rapidly shedding an outer layer of dust. In another case, the entire cloud exhibited a nearly uniform expansion—Coulomb explosion. In perhaps the most exotic case, the cloud splits into two clouds—Coulomb fission. The results for the case of the Coulomb expansion were compared with a theoretical model that included the effects of neutral drag.