11 research outputs found
Relaxation to non-equilibrium in expanding ultracold neutral plasmas
We investigate the strongly correlated ion dynamics and the degree of
coupling achievable in the evolution of freely expanding ultracold neutral
plasmas. We demonstrate that the ionic Coulomb coupling parameter increases considerably in later stages of the expansion, reaching the
strongly coupled regime despite the well-known initial drop of
to order unity due to disorder-induced heating. Furthermore, we formulate a
suitable measure of correlation and show th at calculated from
the ionic temperature and density reflects the degree of order in the system if
it is sufficiently close to a quasisteady state. At later times, however, the
expansion of the plasma cloud becomes faster than the relaxation of
correlations, and the system does not reach thermodynamic equilibrium anymore
Influence of electron-ion collisions on Coulomb crystallization of ultracold neutral plasmas
While ion heating by elastic electron-ion collisions may be neglected for a
description of the evolution of freely expanding ultracold neutral plasmas, the
situation is different in scenarios where the ions are laser-cooled during the
system evolution. We show that electron-ion collisions in laser-cooled plasmas
influence the ionic temperature, decreasing the degree of correlation
obtainable in such systems. However, taking into account the collisions
increases the ion temperature much less than what would be estimated based on
static plasma clouds neglecting the plasma expansion. The latter leads to both
adiabatic cooling of the ions as well as, more importantly, a rapid decrease of
the collisional heating rate
Ultracold Neutral Plasmas
Ultracold neutral plasmas, formed by photoionizing laser-cooled atoms near
the ionization threshold, have electron temperatures in the 1-1000 kelvin range
and ion temperatures from tens of millikelvin to a few kelvin. They represent a
new frontier in the study of neutral plasmas, which traditionally deals with
much hotter systems, but they also blur the boundaries of plasma, atomic,
condensed matter, and low temperature physics. Modelling these plasmas
challenges computational techniques and theories of non-equilibrium systems, so
the field has attracted great interest from the theoretical and computational
physics communities. By varying laser intensities and wavelengths it is
possible to accurately set the initial plasma density and energy, and
charged-particle-detection and optical diagnostics allow precise measurements
for comparison with theoretical predictions. Recent experiments using optical
probes demonstrated that ions in the plasma equilibrate in a strongly coupled
fluid phase. Strongly coupled plasmas, in which the electrical interaction
energy between charged particles exceeds the average kinetic energy, reverse
the traditional energy hierarchy underlying basic plasma concepts such as Debye
screening and hydrodynamics. Equilibration in this regime is of particular
interest because it involves the establishment of spatial correlations between
particles, and it connects to the physics of the interiors of gas-giant planets
and inertial confinement fusion devices.Comment: 89 pages, 54 image
Many-body theory of excitation dynamics in an ultracold Rydberg gas
We develop a theoretical approach for the dynamics of Rydberg excitations in
ultracold gases, with a realistically large number of atoms. We rely on the
reduction of the single-atom Bloch equations to rate equations, which is
possible under various experimentally relevant conditions. Here, we explicitly
refer to a two-step excitation-scheme. We discuss the conditions under which
our approach is valid by comparing the results with the solution of the exact
quantum master equation for two interacting atoms. Concerning the emergence of
an excitation blockade in a Rydberg gas, our results are in qualitative
agreement with experiment. Possible sources of quantitative discrepancy are
carefully examined. Based on the two-step excitation scheme, we predict the
occurrence of an antiblockade effect and propose possible ways to detect this
excitation enhancement experimentally in an optical lattice as well as in the
gas phase.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
Coulomb crystallization in expanding laser-cooled neutral plasmas
We present long-time simulations of expanding ultracold neutral plasmas,
including a full treatment of the strongly coupled ion dynamics. Thereby, the
relaxation dynamics of the expanding laser-cooled plasma is studied, taking
into account elastic as well as inelastic collisions. It is demonstrated that,
depending on the initial conditions, the ionic component of the plasma may
exhibit short-range order or even a superimposed long-range order resulting in
concentric ion shells. In contrast to ionic plasmas confined in traps, the
shell structures are built up from the center of the plasma cloud rather than
from the periphery
Kinetic modelling and molecular dynamics simulation of ultracold neutral plasmas including ionic correlations
A kinetic approach for the evolution of ultracold neutral plasmas including
interionic correlations and the treatment of ionization/excitation and
recombination/deexcitation by rate equations is described in detail. To assess
the reliability of the approximations inherent in the kinetic model, we have
developed a hybrid molecular dynamics method. Comparison of the results reveals
that the kinetic model describes the atomic and ionic observables of the
ultracold plasma surprisingly well, confirming our earlier findings concerning
the role of ion-ion correlations [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 68}, 010703]. In addition,
the molecular dynamics approach allows one to study the relaxation of the ionic
plasma component towards thermodynamical equilibrium
Ultracold Neutral Plasmas
Ultracold neutral plasmas are formed by photoionizing laser-cooled atoms near
the ionization threshold. Through the application of atomic physics techniques
and diagnostics, these experiments stretch the boundaries of traditional
neutral plasma physics. The electron temperature in these plasmas ranges from
1-1000 K and the ion temperature is around 1 K. The density can approach
cm. Fundamental interest stems from the possibility of
creating strongly-coupled plasmas, but recombination, collective modes, and
thermalization in these systems have also been studied. Optical absorption
images of a strontium plasma, using the Sr
transition at 422 nm, depict the density profile of the plasma, and probe
kinetics on a 50 ns time-scale. The Doppler-broadened ion absorption spectrum
measures the ion velocity distribution, which gives an accurate measure of the
ion dynamics in the first microsecond after photoionization.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004,
Nice (France
Absorption Imaging and Spectroscopy of Ultracold Neutral Plasmas
Absorption imaging and spectroscopy can probe the dynamics of an ultracold
neutral plasma during the first few microseconds after its creation.
Quantitative analysis of the data, however, is complicated by the inhomogeneous
density distribution, expansion of the plasma, and possible lack of global
thermal equilibrium for the ions. In this article we describe methods for
addressing these issues. Using simple assumptions about the underlying
temperature distribution and ion motion, the Doppler-broadened absorption
spectrum obtained from plasma images can be related to the average temperature
in the plasma.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure
Plasma formation from ultracold Rydberg gases
Recent experiments have demonstrated the spontaneous evolution of a gas of
ultracold Rydberg atoms into an expanding ultracold plasma, as well as the
reverse process of plasma recombination into highly excited atomic states.
Treating the evolution of the plasma on the basis of kinetic equations, while
ionization/excitation and recombination are incorporated using rate equations,
we have investigated theoretically the Rydberg-to-plasma transition. Including
the influence of spatial correlations on the plasma dynamics in an approximate
way we find that ionic correlations change the results only quantitatively but
not qualitatively