Electron Temperature Evolution in Expanding Ultracold Neutral Plasmas
Atomic Physics
2009-11-13 v1 Plasma Physics
Abstract
We have used the free expansion of ultracold neutral plasmas as a time-resolved probe of electron temperature. A combination of experimental measurements of the ion expansion velocity and numerical simulations characterize the crossover from an elastic-collision regime at low initial Gamma_e, which is dominated by adiabatic cooling of the electrons, to the regime of high Gamma_e in which inelastic processes drastically heat the electrons. We identify the time scales and relative contributions of various processes, and experimentally show the importance of radiative decay and disorder-induced electron heating for the first time in ultracold neutral plasmas.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0705.3416,
title = {Electron Temperature Evolution in Expanding Ultracold Neutral Plasmas},
author = {P. Gupta and S. Laha and C. E. Simien and H. Gao and J. Castro and T. Pohl and T. C. Killian},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0705.3416},
year = {2009}
}