Ultracold neutral plasmas formed by photoionizing laser-cooled atoms near the ionization threshold have electron temperatures in the 1–1000 K range and ion temperatures from tens of millikelvin to a few Kelvin. They represent a new frontier in the study of neutral plasmas, which traditionally deals with much hotter systems, but they also blur the boundaries of plasma, atomic, condensed matter, and low temperature physics. Modeling these plasmas challenges computational techniques and theories of non-equilibrium systems, so the field has attracted great interest from the theoretical and computational physics communities. By varying laser intensities and wavelengths it is possible to accurately set the initial plasma density and energy, and charged-particle-detection and optical diagnostics allow precise measurements for comparison with theoretical predictions.
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