Düsseldorf 2007 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Downloads | Hilfe

SYCP: Symposium Strongly coupled plasmas

SYCP 1: Symposium Strongly Coupled Plasmas

SYCP 1.1: Hauptvortrag

Dienstag, 20. März 2007, 14:00–14:30, 5D

Ultracold Neutral Plasmas — •Steven Rolston — University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

Ultracold neutral plasmas, formed by photoionizing laser-cooled samples of atoms, show some evidence of strong coupling in the ions, although the electrons do not appear to be strongly coupled, at least at early times in the expansion (the UCPs are unconfined). The long-time temperature evolution is as yet unmeasured, and copious Rydberg atom formation at late times and low densities brings into question whether the electron temperature may be much lower than at early times. I will discuss measurements of three-body recombination and Rydberg atom formation using microwave ionization of the Rydberg atoms as a detection mechanism. The dynamics of such UCPs is dominated by the expansion, and any modifaction may have signficant effects of the plasma. I will also discuss our current efforts to confine UCPs with magnetic fields, and the observation of plasma instabilities observed in the course of this research.