Darmstadt 2008 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 26: Posters: BECs, ultracold gases and plasmas

A 26.19: Poster

Thursday, March 13, 2008, 16:30–18:30, Poster C3

Ultracold plasma from the gases of light atoms — •Andrey Lyubonko, Amar S. Sil, and JM Rost — Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany

Ultracold neutral plasmas are formed by photoionizing laser cooled atoms near the ionization threshold [1,2]. The electron temperature is from 1-1000K and the ion temperature is around 1K. The fundamental interest in these systems originates in the possibility of creating strongly coupled plasma. We are mainly interested in the theoretical description of dynamics of ultracold metastable Li+ (1s2s 3S) plasma. The special feature of this system is that the ions are in metastable state and can release its internal energy (ΔE = 59eV per ion) due to inelastic collisions. This energy can drastically change the dynamics of the plasma. The important inelastic collisions are superelastic collisions, three-body recombination which leads to Rydberg atoms formation, subsequent excitation, deexcitation and ionization of Rydberg atoms. We tackle this problem by molecular dynamics (MD) technique including inelastic collisions by rates. We will identify the parameter regimes in which such a metastable ultracold plasma can exist.

1.T. C. Killian, Science 316, 705 (2007)

2.T.C. Killian, T. Pattard, T. Pohl, J.M. Rost, Phys.Rep. 449(2007), 77-130