Eur. Phys. J. D 40, 27-35 (2006)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2006-00189-8

Ionization and plasma formation in high n cold Rydberg samples

Department of Physics, University of Virginia, McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA

Corresponding author: ^a pjt3d@virginia.edu

Received: 1 December 2005
Revised: 12 June 2006
Published online: 18 August 2006

Abstract

The experiments reported here show that the dipole-dipole interaction, the fundamental interaction between the cold Rydberg atoms, is the dominant initial ionization mechanism for evolution from a frozen Rydberg gas into a plasma. The study also indicates that plasma formation follows a path of initial ionization, redistribution of Rydberg population to higher angular momentum states, and rapid avalanche ionization due to electron-Rydberg collisions.