Accession Number:

AD1026515

Title:

Reaching Higher Gamma in Ultracold Neutral Plasmas Through Disorder-Induced Heating Control

Descriptive Note:

Technical Report,01 Jun 2012,31 May 2016

Corporate Author:

Brigham Young University Provo United States

Personal Author(s):

• Bergeson,Scott D.

Report Date:

2016-06-27

Pagination or Media Count:

13.0

Abstract:

This is the final report on project FA9950-12-1-0308, Reaching higher Gamma through disorder-induced heating control. Highlights from the grant include making the first ion temperature measurements in a multiply-ionized ultracold neutral plasma CaCa , making the first measurements of the ion temperature in a plasma that evolves from a dense Rydberg gas, and starting work on the first dual-species MOTand plasma. This project included three major activities. Thefirst was to explore the possibility of increasing the strong-coupling parameter in an ultracold neutral plasma by sequentially ionizing to higher ionization states. This work was motivated by a calculation indicating that it would be possible to quadruple the coupling parameter. The second major activity was to explore the possibility of using the Rydberg excitation blockade to pre-order the neutral gas before ionization. The third major activity was to build a new experiment to study energy relaxation in a dual-species ultracold neutral plasma.

Descriptors:

• lasers
• optical lattices
• kinetic energy
• potential energy
• pulsed lasers
• quasiparticles
• energy levels
• electrons
• excitation
• ionization
• laser induced fluorescence
• low temperature

Subject Categories:

• Plasma Physics and Magnetohydrodynamics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE