Laser cooling of ions in a neutral plasma
Abstract
Plasmas—gases of ionized atoms and electrons—are naturally formed at high temperatures, such as those reached in the interiors of stars. Describing plasmas theoretically is tricky when they are in the strongly coupled regime; reaching that regime in the laboratory would provide a valuable benchmark for theory. To that end, Langin et al. worked with a cold plasma created out of atoms of strontium that were ionized by laser light (see the Perspective by Bergeson). They used lasers to cool the ions down to about 50 millikelvin, reaching the desired strongly coupled regime.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 04, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.aat3158
Entities
People
- Grant M Gorman
- Thomas C Killian
- Thomas K Langin
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Rice University
- United States Department of Energy