Arrested relaxation in an isolated molecular ultracold plasma

Abstract

Spontaneous avalanche to plasma splits the core of an ellipsoidal Rydberg gas of nitric oxide. Ambipolar expansion first quenches the electron temperature of this core plasma. Then, long-range, resonant charge transfer from ballistic ions to frozen Rydberg molecules in the wings of the ellipsoid quenches the centre-of-mass ion/Rydberg molecule velocity distribution. This sequence of steps gives rise to a remarkable mechanics of self-assembly, in which the kinetic energy of initially formed hot electrons and ions drives an observed separation of plasma volumes. These dynamics adiabatically sequester energy in a reservoir of mass transport, starting a process that anneals separating volumes to form an apparent glass of strongly coupled ions and electrons. Short-time electron spectroscopy provides experimental evidence for complete ionization. The long lifetime of this system, particularly its stability with respect to recombination and neutral dissociation, suggests that this transformation affords a robust state of arrested relaxation, far from thermal equilibrium.

References in corpus (8)

• Dipole blockade in a cold Rydberg atomic sample
• Coherent Excitation Transfer in a Spin Chain of Three Rydberg Atoms
• Universal non-equilibrium properties of dissipative Rydberg gases
• Evolution from a molecular Rydberg gas to an ultracold plasma in a seeded supersonic expansion of NO
• Experimental Realization of an Exact Solution to the Vlasov Equations for an Expanding Plasma
• Effective dynamics of strongly dissipative Rydberg gases
• Spectral Line Width Broadening from Pair Fluctuation in a Frozen Rydberg Gas
• The Spectral Backbone of Excitation Transport in Ultra-Cold Rydberg Gases

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Possible many-body localization in a long-lived finite-temperature ultracold quasi-neutral molecular plasma
• Ion friction at small values of the Coulomb logarithm
• Performance evaluation of the discrete truncated Wigner approximation for quench dynamics of quantum spin systems with long-range interactions
• Dissipative dynamics of atomic and molecular Rydberg gases: Avalanche to ultracold plasma states of strong coupling
• Many-body physics with ultracold plasmas: Quenched randomness and localization
• Proof of concept for an optogalvanic gas sensor for NO based on Rydberg excitations
• Expansion of Ultracold Neutral Plasmas with Exponentially Decaying Density Distributions
• Coupled rate-equation hydrodynamic simulation of a Rydberg gas Gaussian ellipsoid: Classical avalanche and evolution to molecular plasma
• Radio frequency field-induced electron mobility in an ultracold plasma state of arrested relaxation
• mm-wave Rydberg-Rydberg resonances as a witness of intermolecular coupling in the arrested relaxation of a molecular ultracold plasma
• Many-body collision contributions to electron momentum damping rates in a plasma influenced by electron strong coupling
• The Vlasov equation correct application based on the higher orders kinematic values for the dissipative systems description
• Dynamical control in a prethermalized molecular ultracold plasma: Local dissipation drives global relaxation