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Chinese Physics Letters

Creation of an Ultracold Plasma by Photoionizing Laser-Cooled Caesium Atom

Jing Qun, Zhigang Feng, Linjie Zhang, Changyong Li, Jianming Zhao, Jia Suo-Tang

Published Dec 1, 2008• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The signals of ultracold plasma are observed by two-photon ionization of laser-cooled atom in a caesium magnetooptical trap. A simple model has been introduced to explain the creation of plasma, and the mechanism is further investigated by changing the energy of a pulsed dye laser and the number of initial cooled atoms.
DOI
10.1088/0256-307x/25/12/017

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Summary form only given. We have observed recombination into a large range of Rydberg levels in an ultracold plasma. The plasma is created by two-photon ionization of laser-trapped and -cooled metastable xenon atoms. By changing the intensity and detuning of the ionizing laser pulse, the initial temperature and density of the plasma can be varied. This allows us to access plasma coupling parameters (???) between 0.1 and 5. In this range of values, we previously reported unexplained heating of the expanding cloud, between 10 and 100 ???s after creation of the plasma. The recently observed recombination appears to provide much of the extra energy responsible for this behavior. The recombined atoms, up to 20% of the created plasma, populate energy levels down to n=40. They survive for /spl sim/1 ms indicating that high angular momentum states are present. However, standard scaling laws for three-body recombination do not agree with the observed dynamics. Furthermore, Rydberg atom formation is incomplete at the time when the plasma expansion velocity has reached its maximum value. Various effects are under consideration as possible remedies to these inconsistencies.
We report the creation of an ultracold neutral plasma by photoionization of laser-cooled xenon atoms. The charge carrier density is as high as $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{9}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$, and the temperatures of electrons and ions are as low as 100 mK and $10\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$, respectively. Plasma behavior is evident in the trapping of electrons by the positive ion cloud when the Debye screening length becomes smaller than the size of the sample. We produce plasmas with parameters such that both electrons and ions are strongly coupled.
We present the first large-scale simulations of an ultracold neutral plasma, produced by photoionization of laser-cooled xenon atoms, from creation to initial expansion, using classical molecular-dynamics methods with open boundary conditions. We reproduce many of the experimental findings such as the trapping efficiency of electrons with increased ion number, a minimum electron temperature achieved on approach to the photoionization threshold, and recombination into Rydberg states of an anomalously low principal quantum number. In addition, many of these effects establish themselves very early in the plasma evolution ( similar ns) before the present experimental observations begin.
In this Letter we discuss our approach that makes possible creation of the steady-state ultracold plasma having various densities and temperatures by means of continuous two-step optical excitation of calcium atoms in the magneto-optical trap. A strongly coupled ultracold plasma can be used as an excellent test platform for studying many-body interactions associated with various plasma phenomena. The parameters of the plasma are studied using laser-induced fluorescence of calcium ions. The experimental results are well described by a simple theoretical model involving equilibration of the continuous source of charged particles by the hydrodynamical ion outflux and three-body recombination. The ultracold plasma with the peak ion density of 2.7×10^{6} cm^{-3} and the minimum electron temperature near 2 K has been prepared. Our steady-state approach in combination with the strong magnetic confinement of the plasma will make it possible to reach extremely strong coupling in such system.