Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Early Dynamics Of Ultracold Neutral Plasmas, Adam W. Denning

Theses and Dissertations

We report new studies on the early-time dynamics of ultracold neutral plasmas. We use fluorescence spectroscopy to probe plasma dynamics on the nanosecond time scale. We determine the rms ion velocity during the initial plasma period. The initial ion acceleration is found as the time derivative of the ion velocity. We compare to a theoretical model. The experimental results agree with the model at low plasma densities. However, the ion acceleration is a factor of ten lower than the model at higher densities. The cause of this discrepancy is currently unknown.