Laser Cooling a Strongly Coupled Plasma
Abstract
This proposal is to use the powerful techniques of laser cooling to cool ions in an ultracold neutral plasma in order to reach much stronger Coulomb coupling. Laser cooling of the plasma has been a longstanding goal for the community studying ultracold plasmas, and our recent work on the evolution of the ion temperature during the expansion of the plasma and collisions and diffusion in a strongly coupled plasma, coupled with improved simulation capabilities, has given us the basic understanding needed to achieve it. The motivation for this work is twofold. First, we are developing laser cooling as a new technique for manipulating plasmas and pushing the boundaries of plasma parameters that are accessible in the laboratory. Second, we will use laser cooled plasmas as a platform for studying strongly coupled plasma physics, with a focus on transport properties. In strongly coupled plasmas, the Coulomb interaction energy per particle exceeds the thermal energy. This occurs in high-energy-density plasmas such as inertial confinement fusion experiments and in nature in the interiors of gas giant planets and the crusts of neutron stars. Classical plasma theory breaks down in strongly coupled systems because of the non-perturbative nature of particle interactions. Improving our understanding of this regime is an important fundamental challenge and it is necessary for modelling plasmas in this regime.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 19, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1184924
Entities
People
- Thomas C Killian
Organizations
- Rice University