Dynamics of Liquid Metal Droplets during Injection into Plasma in the PLM Installation

Experiments are carried out with a liquid metal system that forms a droplet flow injected into a stationary plasma discharge in the PLM installation. The metal alloy Galinstan is used in a system with vertical injection of droplets into the plasma from a microdispenser. The experiment recorded the deviation of droplet trajectories from the vertical in the plasma flow, which, taking into account the direction of the electric field in the discharge chamber of the PLM installation, indicates a negative charge of the droplets. Simulation and analysis of experimental results are carried out. The charge of a droplet in a magnetized plasma is estimated by analyzing its trajectory.