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Formation of Rydberg Atoms in an Expanding Ultracold Neutral Plasma
Published
Author(s)
M J. Lim, T C. Killian, S Kulin, R Dumke, S Bergeson, S L. Rolston
Abstract
We study the formation of Rydberg atoms in expanding plasmas at temperatures of 1-1000K and densities from 10^5 - 10^10 cm^-3. Up to 20% of the initially free charges recombine in about 100 microseconds and the binding energy of the Rydberg atoms approximately equals the increase in the kinetic energy of the remaining free electrons. We contrast these observations with theory for three-body recombination.
Citation
Physical Review Letters
Volume
86
Issue
No. 17
Pub Type
Journals
Keywords
recombination, ultracold plasma
Citation
Lim, M.
, Killian, T.
, Kulin, S.
, Dumke, R.
, Bergeson, S.
and Rolston, S.
(2001),
Formation of Rydberg Atoms in an Expanding Ultracold Neutral Plasma, Physical Review Letters
(Accessed June 1, 2023)