Electron Plasmas Cooled by Cyclotron-Cavity Resonance

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Oct 21;117(17):175001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.175001. Epub 2016 Oct 21.

Abstract

We observe that high-Q electromagnetic cavity resonances increase the cyclotron cooling rate of pure electron plasmas held in a Penning-Malmberg trap when the electron cyclotron frequency, controlled by tuning the magnetic field, matches the frequency of standing wave modes in the cavity. For certain modes and trapping configurations, this can increase the cooling rate by factors of 10 or more. In this Letter, we investigate the variation of the cooling rate and equilibrium plasma temperatures over a wide range of parameters, including the plasma density, plasma position, electron number, and magnetic field.