Preliminary Results on Focusing of High-Density Aerosols

High-density micron-sized particle aerosols might form the basis for a number of plasma applications in which a certain shaped material target might be quickly ionized to form a similarly shaped plasma. While the focusing of low-density aerosols has long been studied, primarily for forensic applications, the aerodynamic focusing of high-density aerosols has received relatively little attention. A relatively simple experimental device was built to study the properties of high-density aerosol focusing for 1-micron silica spheres. Preliminary results show focusing at low densities, whereas at higher densities the focusing changes. There also appears to be a density beyond which focusing does not occur.