Related papers: Recombination fluorescence in ultracold neutral pl…
While generating ultracold plasma (UCP) by photoinization of laser-cooled atoms, only a small fraction of atoms are ionized, and the remaining neutrals interact with the electrons present therein. These interactions, in addition to the…
We report the observation of plasma oscillations in an ultracold neutral plasma. With this collective mode we probe the electron density distribution and study the expansion of the plasma as a function of time. For classical plasma…
We extend an isothermal thermal model of ultracold neutral plasma expansion to systems without spherical symmetry, and use this model to interpret new fluorescence measurements on these plasmas. By assuming a self-similar expansion, it is…
We have studied the behavior of cold Rydberg atoms embedded in an ultracold plasma. We demonstrate that even deeply bound Rydberg atoms are completely ionized in such an environment, due to electron collisions. Using a fast pulse extraction…
We report on the behaviour of the ionization avalanche in an ensemble of ultracold 87Rb atoms coupled to a high lying Rydberg state and investigate extensions to the current model by including the effects of three-body recombination and…
Unified recombination cross sections and rates are computed for (e + Fe XVIII) --> Fe XVII including non-resonant and resonant (radiative and di-electronic recombination, RR and DR) processes in an ab initio manner with relativistic fine…
We survey the results of a long-term study of the process of radiative recombination. A rigorous theory of nonrelativistic electron radiative recombination with a hydrogen-like ion is used to calculate the total cross section of the…
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…
Using a new technique to directly detect current induced on a nearby electrode, we measure plasma oscillations in ultracold plasmas, which are influenced by the inhomogeneous and time-varying density and changing neutrality. Electronic…
Three-body recombination is a prime example of the fundamental interaction between three particles. Due to the complexity of this process it has resisted a comprehensive description. Experimental investigations have mainly focussed on the…
The results of a theoretical investigation of an ultracold, neutral plasma composed of equal mass positive and negative charges are reported. In our simulations, the plasma is created by the fast dissociation of a neutral particle. The…
We study the impact of Rydberg molecule formation on the storage and retrieval of Rydberg polaritons in an ultracold atomic medium. We observe coherent revivals appearing in the retrieval efficiency of stored photons that originate from…
In a new divertor simulator, an ultra-cold (Te<1 eV) high density recombining magnetized laboratory plasma is studied using probes, spectroscopic measurements, and ultra-fast imaging of spontaneous emission. The Mistral-B device consists in…
Cold atomic gases resonantly excited to Rydberg states can exhibit strong optical nonlinearity at the single photon level. We observe that in such samples radiation trapping leads to an additional mechanism for Rydberg excitation.…
Locally probing pairing in fermionic superfluids, ranging from micro- to macroscopic scales, has been a long-standing challenge. Here, we investigate a new approach that uses Rydberg impurities as a spectroscopic sensor of the surrounding…
We investigate the phenomenon of bistability in a thermal gas of cesium atoms excited to Rydberg states. We present both measurements and a numerical model of the phenomena based on collisions. By directly measuring the plasma frequency, we…
Not long after metastable xenon was photoionized in a magneto-optical trap, groups in Europe and North America found that similar states of ionized gas evolved spontaneously from state-selected, high principal quantum number Rydberg gases.…
The broadband parametric fluorescence pulse (probe light) with center frequency resonant on 87Rb D1 line was injected into a cold atomic ensemble with coherent light (control light). Due to the low gain in the parametric down conversion…
We report a systematic experimental and numerical study of the expansion of ultra-cold Rydberg plasmas. Specifically, we have measured the asymptotic expansion velocities, $v_0$, of ultra-cold neutral plasmas (UNPs) which evolve from cold,…
We present combined measurements of the spatially-resolved optical spectrum and the total excited-atom number in an ultracold gas of three-level atoms under electromagnetically induced transparency conditions involving high-lying Rydberg…