Confined Filamentation Dynamics in Strongly Magnetized Low Temperature Plasma using the MDPX device

The Magnetized Dusty Plasma eXperiment (MDPX) is a unique device that can produce steady state, large magnetic fields up to 4 T in a significant experimental volume, 50 cm in diameter and over 20 cm long. At magnetic fields larger than ~1 T, rf generated, capacitively-coupled plasmas exhibit the formation of coherent structures that are generally aligned along the magnetic field direction and that can be stable or mobile that are referred to as "filaments". These filaments disrupt the uniform plasma background and cause significant perturbations to dusty plasma experiments. Therefore, understanding the morphology and dynamics of filaments in a dust-free environment has become an integral part of the studies using the MDPX device. This presentation will discuss investigations of confined filaments, achieved by introducing copper rings on the main electrodes, which acts to restrict motion. The localization of the filaments offers more reliable measurements including improved spatial and temporal resolution. A tracking algorithm that has been developed in Python will be used to quantify and classify the translational and rotational dynamics as well as provide insights into transitions between different morphologies.