2003/11/27 by T. Pohl, Thomas Pohl, T. Pattard +3 · 108 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Coulomb explosion #Dust and Plasma Wave Phenomena #Energetic neutral atom #Ion #Ionic bonding #Ionization #Laser #Laser-induced spectroscopy and plasma #Materials science #Nuclear physics #Optics #Physics #Plasma #Range (aeronautics) #Relaxation (psychology) #Theoretical and Computational Physics #physics.atom-ph #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.92.155003
published in Physical Review Letters 92(15), 155003 (American Physical Society)
arxiv created 2003/11/27 · openalex publication_date 2004/04/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present long-time simulations of expanding ultracold neutral plasmas, including a full treatment of the strongly coupled ion dynamics. Thereby, the relaxation of the expanding laser-cooled plasma is studied, taking into account elastic as well as inelastic collisions. It is demonstrated that, depending on the initial conditions, the ionic component of the plasma may exhibit short-range order or even a superimposed long-range order resulting in concentric ion shells. In contrast to ionic plasmas confined in traps, the shell structures build up from the center of the plasma cloud rather than from the periphery.