We discuss our progress towards achieving external control of the electron temperature and the Coulomb coupling parameter of ultra‐cold plasmas. Using a Littman dye laser, we create the plasma by partially photoionizing a dense, cold sample of rubidium atoms in a magneto‐optical trap (MOT). At a controllable time delay, we excite neutral atoms in the plasma to a specific Rydberg state using a narrow bandwidth pulsed laser. We have made very qualitative measurements of the electron temperature as a function of delay from the exciting laser pulses. Some of our results suggest that the plasma is stabilized by the presence of the Rydberg atoms, with a longer lifetime and slower expansion rate than a plasma that evolves directly from a dense Rydberg sample.
We discuss our progress towards achieving external control of the electron temperature and the Coulomb coupling parameter of ultra‐cold plasmas. Using a Littman dye laser, we create the plasma by partially photoionizing a dense, cold sample of rubidium atoms in a magneto‐optical trap (MOT). At a controllable time delay, we excite neutral atoms in the plasma to a specific Rydberg state using a narrow bandwidth pulsed laser. We have made very qualitative measurements of the electron temperature as a function of delay from the exciting laser pulses. Some of our results suggest that the plasma is stabilized by the presence of the Rydberg atoms, with a longer lifetime and slower expansion rate than a plasma that evolves directly from a dense Rydberg sample.
We discuss our progress towards achieving external control of the electron temperature and the Coulomb coupling parameter of ultra-cold plasmas. Using a Littman dye laser, we create the plasma by partially photoionizing a dense, cold sample of rubidium atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). At a controllable time delay, we excite neutral atoms in the plasma to a specific Rydberg state using a narrow bandwidth pulsed laser. We have made very qualitative measurements of the electron temperature as a function of delay from the exciting laser pulses. Some of our results suggest that the plasma is stabilized by the presence of the Rydberg atoms, with a longer lifetime and slower expansion rate than a plasma that evolves directly from a dense Rydberg sample.
We present the first experiment to observe an ultracold neutral plasma. The plasma, which was created by photoionization of laser cooled atoms, has charge densities as high as 2×109 cm−3, and the temperatures of electrons and ions are as low as 100 mK and 10 μK, respectively. The plasma has a lifetime of about 100 μs, much longer than predicted by recombination rates. When the laser that excites the atoms is tuned below the ionization limit we create a sample of very highly excited cold Rydberg atoms. At our highest densities and during a time of a few microseconds, in which the Rydberg atoms are essentially stationary, the ensemble evolves towards an unbound plasma-like state.
We report a systematic experimental and numerical study of the expansion of ultra-cold Rydberg plasmas. Specifically, we have measured the asymptotic expansion velocities, v0, of ultra-cold neutral plasmas (UNPs) which evolve from cold, dense samples of Rydberg rubidium atoms using ion time-of-flight spectroscopy. From this, we have obtained values for the effective initial plasma electron temperature, Te,0=mionv02/kB (where mion is the Rb+ ion mass), as a function of the original Rydberg atom density and binding energy, Eb,i. We have also simulated numerically the interaction of UNPs with a large reservoir of Rydberg atoms to obtain data to compare with our experimental results. We find that for Rydberg atom densities in the range 107−109 cm−3, for states with principal quantum number n>40, Te,0 is insensitive to the initial ionization mechanism which seeds the plasma. In addition, the quantity kBTe,0 is strongly correlated with the fraction of atoms which ionize, and is in the range 0.6×∣Eb,i∣≲kBTe,0≲2.5×∣Eb,i∣. On the other hand, plasmas from Rydberg samples with n≲40 evolve with no significant additional ionization of the remaining atoms once a threshold number of ions has been established. The dominant interaction between the plasma electrons and the Rydberg atoms is one in which the atoms are deexcited, a heating process for electrons that competes with adiabatic cooling to establish an equilibrium where Te,0 is determined by their Coulomb coupling parameter, Γe∼0.01.
The recent development of laser cooling and trapping techniques has made possible the controlled realization of dense and cold atomic samples, thus opening the way for spectroscopic investigations in the low and ultra-low temperature regimes not accessible with conventional techniques. In our lab, an apparatus for laser cooling and Bose-Einstein condensation of rubidium atoms is in operation, producing a sample large enough to perform reliable investigations by absorption or emission techniques. Moving from previous photoionization experiments of laser-cooled atoms in a magneto-optical trap irradiated by cw-laser radiation [1] and stimulated by the interest grown recently on ultra-cold plasma [2], we have started a series of experiments aimed at investigating the interaction of intense laser pulses with the ultra-cold neutral sample, boty aboeand below the condensation temperature. Radiation from an excimer-pumped dye laser was used at a wavelength close to 594 nm, corresponding to the ionization threshold of rubidium for two photon non-resonant absorption from the ground state, with intensities in the tens of MW/cm^2 range and a pulse duration of 16 ns. Preliminary results, attained through the dynamical analysis (atom number, temperature) of the cold atom sample after the arrival of the laser pulse, suggest the occurrence of different processes, initiated by multi-photon ionization, involving collisions between cold electrons and ultra-cold neutrals, recombination at low temperatures and collective processes in the weak and cold plasma. Interpretation of those results demonstrates that this class of experiments, based on a variety of topics typical of atomic, plasma and statistical physics, can open the way for novel and intriguing investigations of laser-matter interaction. Further experimental developments will include duplication of the laser pulse frequency and one photon ionization of ground state rubidium laser-cooled atoms. [1] O. Maragò et al., Phys. Rev. A 57 R4110 (1998); E., Arimondo et al., Appl. Surf. Sci. 154-155 527 (2000); F. Fuso et al., Opt. Commun. 173 223 (2000). [2] T.C. Killian et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 83 4776 (1999); S. Kulin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85 318 (2000).
By photoionizing a sample of laser‐cooled xenon atoms, we create ultracold neutral plasmas with initial temperatures of 1–1000 K and densities as high as 1010 cm−3. The plasma is formed by the trapping of electrons by the residual positive charge that is left after some electrons initially leave the sample. We excite plasma oscillations with applied radio frequency fields and use this to monitor the expansion of the unconfined plasma. We have observed significant recombination of the plasma into Rydberg atoms (up to 20 %). At these low temperatures, the only traditional form of recombination that could be significant is three‐body recombination (TBR). Recent theoretical studies of ultracold plasmas, and prospects for future experiments, are discussed.
By photoionizing samples of laser-cooled atoms with laser light tuned just above the ionization limit, plasmas can be created with electron and ion temperatures below 10 K. These ultracold neutral plasmas have extended the temperature bounds of plasma physics by two orders of magnitude. Table-top experiments, using many of the tools from atomic physics, allow for the study of plasma phenomena in this new regime with independent control over the density and temperature of the plasma through the excitation process. Characteristic of these systems is an inhomogeneous density profile, inherited from the density distribution of the laser-cooled neutral atom sample. Most work has dealt with unconfined plasmas in vacuum, which expand outward at velocities of order 100 m/s, governed by electron pressure, and with lifetimes of order 100 μs, limited by stray electric fields. Using detection of charged particles and optical detection techniques, a wide variety of properties and phenomena have been observed, including expansion dynamics, collective excitations in both the electrons and ions, and collisional properties. Through three-body recombination collisions, the plasmas rapidly form Rydberg atoms, and clouds of cold Rydberg atoms have been observed to spontaneously avalanche ionize to form plasmas. Of particular interest is the possibility of the formation of strongly coupled plasmas, where Coulomb forces dominate thermal motion and correlations become important. The strongest impediment to strong coupling is disorder-induced heating, a process in which Coulomb energy from an initially disordered sample is converted into thermal energy. This restricts electrons to a weakly coupled regime and leaves the ions barely within the strongly coupled regime. This review will give an overview of the field of ultracold neutral plasmas, from its inception in 1999 to current work, including efforts to increase strong coupling and effects on plasma properties due to strong coupling.