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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Brigham Young University

Astrophysics and Astronomy

2018

PIC

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Ion Friction At Small Values Of The Coulomb Logarithm, Robert Tucker Sprenkle Jul 2018

Ion Friction At Small Values Of The Coulomb Logarithm, Robert Tucker Sprenkle

Theses and Dissertations

We create a dual-species ultracold neutral plasma (UNP) by photo-ionizing Yb and Ca atoms in a dual-species magneto-optical trap. Unlike single-species UNP expansion, these plasmas are well outside of the collisionless (Vlasov) approximation. We observe the mutual interaction of the Yb and Ca ions by measuring the velocity distribution for each ion species separately. We model the expansion using a fluid code including ion-ion friction and compare with experimental results to obtain a value of the Coulomb logarithm of Λ= 0.04.