Regenerative Soot-I: Carbon cluster formation in regenerative sooting plasmas

Laboratory formation of large carbon clusters with m C atoms where m could be up to few thousand, in carbonaceous plasma, has been studied by using an especially designed ion source. Carbon is introduced into the glow discharge plasma by sputtering of the graphite electrode. Soot dominated plasma is created whose constituents are carbon clusters. It produces and recycles cluster containing plasma. Regenerative sooting plasma creates the environment in which the entire spectrum of clusters that contain the linear chains, rings and fullerenes. Velocity spectra of the extracted clusters have been measured with an ExB filter. These spectra indicate and identify the mechanisms operating in the soot.