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Register a new userUsing Charged Particle Imaging to Study Ultracold Plasma Expansion
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We develop a projection imaging technique to study ultracold plasma dynamics. We image the charged particle spatial distributions by extraction with a high-voltage pulse onto a position-sensitive detector. Measuring the 2D width of the ion image at later times (the ion image size in the first 20 $mu$s is dominated by the Coulomb explosion of the dense ion cloud), we extract the plasma expansion velocity. These velocities at different initial electron temperatures match earlier results obtained by measuring the plasma oscillation frequency. The electron image size slowly decreases during the plasma lifetime because of the strong Coulomb force of the ion cloud on the electrons, electron loss and Coulomb explosion effects.
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We measure the expansion of an ultracold plasma across the field lines of a uniform magnetic field. We image the ion distribution by extracting the ions with a high voltage pulse onto a position-sensitive detector. Early in the lifetime of the plasma ($< 20$ $mu$s), the size of the image is dominated by the time-of-flight Coulomb explosion of the dense ion cloud. For later times, we measure the 2-D Gaussian width of the ion image, obtaining the transverse expansion velocity as a function of magnetic field (up to 70 G). We observe that the expansion velocity scales as B$^{-1/2}$, explained by a nonlinear ambipolar diffusion model with anisotropic diffusion in two different directions.
Electron evaporation plays an important role in the electron temperature evolution and thus expansion rate in low-density ultracold plasmas. In addition, evaporation is useful as a potential tool for obtaining colder electron temperatures and characterizing plasma parameters. Evaporation theory has been developed for atomic gases and has been applied to a one-component plasma system. We numerically investigate whether such an adapted theory is applicable to ultracold neutral plasmas. We find that it is not due to the violation of fundamental assumptions of the model. The details of our calculations are presented as well as a discussion of the implications for a simple description of the electron evaporation rate in ultracold plasmas.
We present the first observation of an instability in an expanding ultracold plasma. We observe periodic emission of electrons from an ultracold plasma in weak, crossed magnetic and electric fields, and a strongly perturbed electron density distribution in electron time-of-flight projection images. We identify this instability as a high-frequency electron drift instability due to the coupling between the electron drift wave and electron cyclotron harmonic, which has large wavenumbers corresponding to wavelengths close to the electron gyroradius.
We demonstrate magnetic confinement of an ultracold neutral plasma (UCNP) created at the null of a biconic cusp, or quadrupole magnetic field. Initially, the UCNP expands due to electron thermal pressure. As the plasma encounters stronger fields, expansion slows and the density distribution molds to the field. UCNP electrons are strongly magnetized over most of the plasma, while ion magnetization is only significant at the boundaries. Observations suggest that electrons and ions are predominantly trapped by magnetic mirroring and ambipolar electric fields respectively. Confinement times approach 0.5 ms, while unmagnetized plasmas dissipate on a timescale of a few tens of microseconds.
A nanometer-sized dielectric particle lying on a dielectric substrate is exposed to the flux of low-energy electrons, ion and electron fluxes from a cold plasma and the fluxes from the combination of these two sources with the help of particle-in-cell simulation to investigate the particle lofting phenomenon. The results are of interest for dust mitigation in the semiconductor industry, the lunar exploration, and the explanation of the dust levitation.
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