Ultra-cold plasmas: a paradigm for strongly coupled and classical electron fluids

Abstract

AbstractUltra-cold plasmas obtained by ionization of atomic Rydberg states are qualified as classical and strongly coupled electron fluids. They are shown to share several common trends with ultra-cold electron flows used for ion-beam cooling. They exhibit specific stopping behaviour to charged particle beams, which may be used for diagnostic purposes. Ultra-cold plasmas are easily strongly magnetized. Then, one expects a strongly anisotropic behaviour of low ion velocity slowing down when the target electron cyclotron radius becomes smaller than the corresponding Debye length.