Absorption imaging of ultracold neutral plasmas

Author

Simien, C.E. ; Chen, Y.C. ; Gupta, P. ; Laha, S. ; Martinez, Y.N. ; Mickelson, P.G. ; Nagel, S.B. ; Killian, T.C.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys. & Astron., Rice Univ., Houston, TX, USA

Volume

33

Issue

2

fYear

2005

fDate

4/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

540

Lastpage

541

Abstract

We report optical absorption imaging of ultracold neutral plasmas. Imaging allows direct observation of the ion density profile and expansion of the plasma. The frequency dependence of the plasma´s optical depth gives the ion absorption spectrum, which is broadened by the ion motion. We use the spectral width to monitor ion equilibration in the first 250 ns after plasma formation. On a microsecond time scale, we observe the radial acceleration of ions resulting from pressure exerted by the trapped electron gas.

Keywords

plasma density; plasma diagnostics; plasma flow; plasma pressure; ion absorption spectrum; ion density profile; ion equilibrium; ion motion; microsecond time scale; optical absorption imaging; plasma expansion; plasma formation; plasma optical depth; radial ion acceleration; trapped electron gas pressure; ultracold neutral plasmas; Absorption; Acceleration; Electron optics; Electron traps; Frequency dependence; Monitoring; Optical imaging; Particle beam optics; Plasma accelerators; Plasma density; Image analysis; plasma measurements; plasmas; spectral analysis;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2005.845342

Filename

1420566