High Resolution Ionization of Ultracold Neutral Plasmas
Plasma Physics
2015-06-03 v1 Atomic Physics
Abstract
Collective effects, such as waves and instabilities, are integral to our understanding of most plasma phenomena. We have been able to study these in ultracold neutral plasmas by shaping the initial density distribution through spatial modulation of the ionizing laser intensity. We describe a relay imaging system for the photoionization beam that allows us to create higher resolution features and its application to extend the observation of ion acoustic waves to shorter wavelengths. We also describe the formation of sculpted density profiles to create fast expansion of plasma into vacuum and streaming plasmas.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1201.0168,
title = {High Resolution Ionization of Ultracold Neutral Plasmas},
author = {P. McQuillen and J. Castro and T. C. Killian},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1201.0168},
year = {2015}
}