Coulomb expansion of laser-excited ion plasmas. Phys Rev Lett 2002 Oct 21;89(17):173004
Date
10/26/2002Pubmed ID
12398667DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.173004Abstract
We determine the electric field in mm-sized clouds of cold Rb+ ions, produced by photoionization of laser-cooled 87Rb atoms in a magneto-optical trap, using the Stark effect of embedded Rydberg atoms. The dependence of the electric field on the time delay between the ion plasma production and the probe of the electric field reflects the Coulomb expansion of the plasma. Our experiments and models show expansion times <1micros.
