Levitated crystals and quasicrystals of metamaterials

Wang, Zhehui¹  Morris, Christopher¹  Goree, John A² 

[1] Los Alamos National Laboratory;Dept Phys and Astron., University of Iowa

关键词: CARBON;    CRYSTAL STRUCTURE;    CRYSTALLOGRAPHY;    DIMENSIONS;    DUSTS;    LEVITATION;    NANOTUBES;    PLASMA;    SUBSTRATES;    SYNTHESIS;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1047116
RP-ID  :  LA-UR-12-23420
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1047116
Others  :  TRN: US1203973

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

New scientific and technological opportunities exist by marrying dusty plasma research with metamaterials. Specifically, by balancing control and self-assembly, certain laboratory plasmas can become a generic levitation platform for novel structure formation and nanomaterial synthesis. We propose to experimentally investigate two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) levitated structures of metamaterials and their properties. Such structures can self assemble in laboratory plasmas, similar to levitated dust crystals which were discovered in the mid 1990's. Laboratory plasma platform for metamaterial formation eliminates substrates upon which most metamaterials have to be supported. Three types of experiments, with similar setups, are discussed here. Levitated crystal structures of metamaterials using anisotropic microparticles are the most basic of the three. The second experiment examines whether quasicrystals of metamaterials are possible. Quasicrystals, discovered in the 1980's, possess so-called forbidden symmetries according to the conventional crystallography. The proposed experiment could answer many fundamental questions about structural, thermal and dynamical properties of quasicrystals. And finally, how to use nanoparticle coated microparticles to synthesize very long carbon nanotubes is also described. All of the experiments can fit inside a standard International Space Station locker with dimensions of 8-inch x 17-inch X 18-inch. Microgravity environment is deemed essential in particular for large 3D structures and very long carbon nanotube synthesis.