APS » PROLA » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 86 » Issue 4

Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 636 - 639 (2001)

Evidence for Highly Charged Ion Coulomb Crystallization in Multicomponent Strongly Coupled Plasmas
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L. Gruber1 *, J. P. Holder2, J. Steiger1 †, B. R. Beck1, H. E. DeWitt1, J. Glassman3, J. W. McDonald1, D. A. Church2, and D. Schneider1
1Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, California 94550
2Physics Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4242
3Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154

Received 15 July 1999; revised 9 May 2000

Multicomponent non-neutral ion plasmas in a Penning trap consisting of Be+ and highly charged Xe ions, having different mass-to-charge ratios than Be+, are cooled to form strongly coupled plasmas by applying a laser-based collisional cooling scheme. The temperature of the plasma was determined from a Doppler broadened transition in Be+. For the Xe ions, which are centrifugally separated from the Be, the Coulomb coupling parameter was estimated to be ≈1000. Molecular dynamics simulations of the ion mixture show ordered structures, indicating crystallization of the Xe.


©2001 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v86/p636
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.636
PACS: 52.27.Jt, 32.80.Pj, 36.40.Ei

* Present address: Spectra-Physics Lasers, Inc., 1305 Terra Bella Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043.
† Present address: ON Semiconductor, 2000 South County Trail, East Greenwich, RI 02818.

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