Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 173004 (2002) [4 pages]Coulomb Expansion of Laser-Excited Ion PlasmasReceived 12 March 2002; published 8 October 2002 We determine the electric field in mm-sized clouds of cold Rb+ ions, produced by photoionization of laser-cooled 87Rb atoms in a magneto-optical trap, using the Stark effect of embedded Rydberg atoms. The dependence of the electric field on the time delay between the ion plasma production and the probe of the electric field reflects the Coulomb expansion of the plasma. Our experiments and models show expansion times <1μs. © 2002 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.173004
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.173004
PACS:
32.80.Pj, 32.60.+i, 52.20.–j
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