Simulations of prompt many-body ionization in a frozen Rydberg gas

Abstract

The results of a theoretical investigation of prompt many-body ionization are reported. Our calculations address an experiment that reported ionization in Rydberg gases for densities two orders of magnitude less than expected from ionization between pairs of atoms. The authors argued that the results were due to the simultaneous interaction between many atoms. We performed classical calculations for many interacting Rydberg atoms with the ions fixed in space and have found that the many atom interaction does allow ionization at lower densities than estimates from two atom interactions. However, we found that the density fluctuations in a gas play a larger role. These two effects are an order of magnitude too small to account for the experimental results suggesting at least one other mechanism strongly affects ionization.

References in corpus (6)

• Mechanical effect of van der Waals interactions observed in real time in an ultracold Rydberg gas
• Evolution from a molecular Rydberg gas to an ultracold plasma in a seeded supersonic expansion of NO
• Spontaneous avalanche ionization of a strongly blockaded Rydberg gas
• Plasma formation from ultracold Rydberg gases
• Autoionization of an ultracold Rydberg gas through resonant dipole coupling
• Density dependence of the Ionization Avalanche in ultracold Rydberg gases

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Dissipative dynamics of atomic and molecular Rydberg gases: Avalanche to ultracold plasma states of strong coupling
• Quantum mechanical calculation of Rydberg-Rydberg autoionization rates
• Pulsed excitation of Rydberg-atom-pair states in an ultracold Cs gas
• Expansion of an ultracold Rydberg plasma
• What is the temperature of an ultra-cold Rydberg plasma?
• Ultrafast many-body dynamics of dense Rydberg gases and ultracold plasma