Gaussian expansion and electron temperature determination in ultracold Sr plasma

In an ultracold neutral plasma, absorption images show the details of the self-similar expansion of a Gaussian density distribution. As the plasma evolves, the initial electron temperature (T$_{e})$ plays a critical role and calculating the electron temperature is necessary to predict which processes will be dominant in the evolution. Here, we present a study to calculate the electron temperature of ultracold Sr plasma when the ion cloud undergoes a Gaussian expansion. Calculating T$_{e}$ will tell us how many ions are we losing due to three body recombination (TBR).