Date of Award
2007
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Physics and Astronomy Dept.
Advisor(s)
Duncan A. Tate
Second Advisor
Charles W.S. Conover
Abstract
This thesis discusses progress towards achieving external control of the electron temperature and the Coulomb coupling parameter of ultra-cold plasmas. Using a Littman dye laser, we create the plasma by partially photoionizing a dense, cold sample of rubidium atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). At a controllable time delay, we excite neutral atoms in the plasma to a specific Rydberg state using a narrow bandwidth pulsed dye laser. We have made progress towards optimizing and quantifying the achievable Rydberg atom density by using mm-wave spectroscopy to control the evolution of a cold dense Rydberg sample to plasma and have also begun preliminary investigations of plasma electron temperature measurements.
Keywords
Rydberg states, Electron temperature, Low temperature plasmas
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Roy O., "External Control of Electron Temperature in Ultra-cold Plasmas" (2007). Honors Theses. Paper 231.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/231
Copyright
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