Escaping electrons in ultracold strongly coupled plasmas

Yupeng Cao; Feng Fang; Wenchang Zhou; Changjie Luo; Yufan Li; Jie Yang

doi:10.1063/5.0326146

journal article·2026-06-01Open access

Escaping electrons in ultracold strongly coupled plasmas

Yupeng Cao, Feng Fang, Wenchang Zhou, Changjie Luo, Yufan Li, Jie Yang

AIP Advances· Volume 16· Issue 6

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Source abstract

Abstract

Escaping electrons are a fundamental nonequilibrium component in plasmas and play a crucial role in energy and particle transport. Ultracold plasmas provide a simple and well-controlled platform for directly studying escaping electrons. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the escaping behavior of electrons in ultracold plasmas during the electron equilibration phase and show that their dynamics are closely associated with Coulomb coupling parameter. In the weakly coupled regime, the evolution of escaping electrons exhibits universal behavior under appropriate scaling, whereas in the strongly coupled regime, their formation is strongly suppressed. These results reveal the characteristics of escaping dynamics in ultracold plasmas and provide insight into electron escape processes in more complex plasmas.

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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Dust and Plasma Wave Phenomena · Plasma Diagnostics and Applications · Atomic and Molecular Physics

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 , Lanzhou 730000,

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 2 , Beijing 100049,

Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory 3 , Huizhou 516003,

College of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Anyang Normal University 4 , Anyang 455000,

CAS Key Laboratory of High Precision Nuclear Spectroscopy, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 5 , Lanzhou 73000,

Funding

National Key Research and Development Program of China · National Natural Science Foundation of China · Science and Technology Program of Gansu Province · Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province · Scientific and Technological Project of Anyang City

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