Hannover 2010 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 23: Poster II

A 23.52: Poster

Thursday, March 11, 2010, 16:30–19:00, Lichthof

Rydberg atom formation in strongly correlated ultracold neutral plasmas — •Georg Bannasch and Thomas Pohl — Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden

In plasmas at very low temperatures the recombination into neutral atoms is dominated by three-body recombination, owing to the strong ∼ T^−9/2 scaling of the recombination rate with the electron temperature. While this law is well established at high temperatures, the unphysical divergence as T→0 clearly suggests a breakdown in the low-temperature regime. Despite active debates about its extension into the low-temperature domain, and consequently strong coupling regime, a conclusive answer is still missing.

Here, we use a combined molecular dynamics - Monte Carlo method to investigate electron-ion recombination over a wide range of temperatures and densities. Through a careful analysis, we devise an approach that permits to distinguish recombined atoms from the surrounding plasma, i.e. to develop a chemical picture − even in the strongly coupled regime. Our method reproduces the known behavior of the recombination for high temperatures, but reveals significant changes as T decreases. We discuss the fate of the kinetic bottleneck and resolve the divergence-problem in the ultracold domain.