Using Fermi Statistics to Create Strongly Coupled Ion Plasmas in Atom Traps

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of forming a strongly coupled ion plasma from a cold atomic gas. We show that rapid ion heating occurs as correlations develop from the initial disordered configuration. This heating severely reduces the Coulomb coupling of the final configuration, although the final Coulomb coupling can be maximized by introducing order into the initial atomic gas. We show that such order can be introduced into the initial state by employing a degenerate Fermi gas whereby the Pauli hole mimics the Coulomb hole. The corresponding initial state correlations can enhance the Coulomb coupling in the final state by orders of magnitude.