Sponsor
This research was supported by Reed College as well as the Sanchez Nano-Development Laboratory’s Research Sponsored Projects Group at Portland State University. Imaging was performed at the Portland State University Center for Electron Microscopy and Nanofabrication.
Published In
Physical Review E
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2-2014
Subjects
Ball lightning, Electricity, Energy transfer, Silicon chemistry
Abstract
A phenomenon resembling natural ball lightning can be produced via electrical arcing through silicon. We use lump silicon instead of silicon wafers to achieve higher production rates and larger, longer-lived luminous balls than previously reported. The luminous balls consist of a silicon core surrounded by a porous network of loosely bound silicon dioxide nanoparticles. We find that the balls carry a small net charge on the order of 10−12 C and propose that the nanoparticles are electrostatically bound to the core due to this charge.
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevE.90.063102
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/13184
Citation Details
Porter, C. L., Miley, G. P., Griffiths, D. J., & Sánchez, E. (2014). Charge on luminous bodies resembling natural ball lightning produced via electrical arcs through lump silicon. Physical Review E, 90(6), 063102.
Description
This is the publisher's final PDF. Article appears in Physical Review E (http://pre.aps.org/) and is copyrighted by APS Journals (http://publish.aps.org/). Reproduced here with author and publisher permission.