Experiments on Structure and Trapping of Coulomb balls.

This paper gives a survey of recent experiments on Coulomb balls. Starting with typical observations to introduce the Coulomb ball experiment and its diagnostic potential, their structural properties are discussed. Further, the trapping mechanism for the dust is quantified to allow for a systematic comparison of experiment and simulations. Finally, the presented results focus on the question how screening influences the structural properties and how Coulomb balls and other strongly coupled systems are related. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]