Rydberg atom three-body recombination rates as a function of electron magnetization in ultracold neutral plasmas

Rydberg atom formation via three-body recombination in ultracold neutral plasmas is interesting both from the perspective of studying processes in cold plasmas and because the main limitation on the coldest achievable electron temperatures comes from heating from three-body recombination. Other plasma systems such as those associated with antihydrogen formation are strongly impacted by three-body recombination as well. Recombination rates are predicted to decrease substantially as a function of magnetic field in the plasma. Ultracold neutral plasmas are comparatively easy to magnetize as comparatively low laboratory magnetic fields and so are excellent systems to conduct studies of magnetization effects on Rydberg formation rates. We describe our techniques for measuring these rates experimentally as well as report observations and simulation results relevant to our measurements.