Density and temperature scaling of disorder-induced heating in ultracold plasmas

We report measurements and simulations of disorder-induced heating in ultracold neutral plasmas. Fluorescence from plasma ions is excited using a detuned probe laser beam while the plasma relaxes from its initially disordered nonequilibrium state. This method probes the wings of the ion velocity distribution. The simulations yield information on time-evolving plasma parameters that are difficult to measure directly and make it possible to connect the fluorescence signal to the rms velocity distribution. The disorder-induced heating signal can be used to estimate the electron and ion temperatures similar to 100 ns after the plasma is created. This is particularly interesting for plasmas in which the electron and ion temperatures are not known.