Dusty plasmas: experiments on nonlinear dust acoustic waves, shocks and structures

A review is presented of recent experiments performed on the University of Iowa dc discharge dusty plasma device on various aspects of dust acoustic waves. A brief introduction to the physics of dusty plasmas and the dust acoustic wave is first presented. Three experiments are then described: (i) observation and interpretation of large amplitude (nonlinear) dust acoustic waves; (ii) evolution of large amplitude dust acoustic waves into shocks, and comparison to numerical shock solutions of the generalized hydrodynamic equations and (iii) the spontaneous formation of stationary, stable dust structures in a moderately coupled dusty plasma (dust structurization).