This article is cited in 15 papers

Interaction of laser radiation with matter. Laser plasma

Relaxation of Rydberg states in an ultracold plasma

A. N. Tkachev, S. I. Yakovlenko

Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Abstract: The variations in the population densities of Rydberg states (with principal quantum number n ~50 – 100) in an expanding ultracold laser plasma (N_e ~10⁹ – 10⁴ cm^-3, T_e ~10 – 0.5 K) are calculated. The electron temperature measurement from the population densities of Rydberg states (T C Killian et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 86, p. 3759, 2001) is shown to be described by the conventional three-body recombination theory with the inclusion of recombination heating of free electrons.

PACS: 32.80.Rm, 52.50.Jm

Received: 13.09.2001

 English version: Quantum Electronics, 2001, 31:12, 1084–1088

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