NNPs for AMO

Interesting in their own right, Non-neutral Plasmas (NNPs )provide the workhorse for specialized atomic physics measurements, especially with rare particles. Cllff Surko was a visionary in appreciating the synergy between studying non-neutral plasmas for their own sake and the benefit of creating optimized plasmas for the extraction of charged particle beams for AMO (atomic, molecular and optical) experiments. I will discuss my current group’s work with extracted Highly Charged Ions from Electron Beam Ion Traps (EBITs) for x-ray spectroscopy and cross sections measurements with specific application to laboratory astrophysics. The trapped HCI plasmas serve as the driving technology for the creation and accumulation of sufficient amounts of these exotic atoms for atomic physics experiments. However a detailed understanding of the plasmas is the driving science for optimizing these plasmas.