Ion Acoustic Waves in Ultracold Neutral Plasmas

Journal Article · Fri Aug 06 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.105.065004· OSTI ID:21470939

Castro, J; McQuillen, P; Killian, T C ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy and Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005 (United States)

We photoionize laser-cooled atoms with a laser beam possessing spatially periodic intensity modulations to create ultracold neutral plasmas with controlled density perturbations. Laser-induced fluorescence imaging reveals that the density perturbations oscillate in space and time, and the dispersion relation of the oscillations matches that of ion acoustic waves, which are long-wavelength, electrostatic, density waves.

• OSTI ID: 21470939
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 105; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMS
COLD PLASMA
DISPERSION RELATIONS
DISTURBANCES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EMISSION
FLUORESCENCE
ION ACOUSTIC WAVES
ION WAVES
LASER RADIATION
LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA
LASERS
LUMINESCENCE
MODULATION
PERIODICITY
PHOTON EMISSION
PLASMA
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA WAVES
RADIATIONS
VARIATIONS