Rydberg-atom formation in strongly correlated ultracold plasmas

Journal Article · Tue Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.84.052710· OSTI ID:22093530

Bannasch, G.; Pohl, T. ^[1]

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1. Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Noethnitzer Strasse 38, D-01187 Dresden (Germany)

In plasmas at very low temperatures, the formation of neutral atoms is dominated by collisional three-body recombination, owing to the strong {approx}T{sup -9/2} scaling of the corresponding recombination rate with the electron temperature T. While this law is well established at high temperatures, the unphysical divergence as T{yields}0 clearly suggests a breakdown in the low-temperature regime. Here, we present a combined molecular dynamics Monte Carlo study of electron-ion recombination over a wide range of temperatures and densities. Our results reproduce the known behavior of the recombination rate at high temperatures, but reveal significant deviations with decreasing temperature. We discuss the fate of the kinetic bottleneck and resolve the divergence problem as the plasma enters the ultracold, strongly coupled domain.

• OSTI ID: 22093530
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 84; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMS
COLD PLASMA
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ELECTRON-ION COLLISIONS
ION DENSITY
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS METHOD
MONTE CARLO METHOD
RECOMBINATION
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THREE-BODY PROBLEM