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Laser-excited Rydberg gases and plasmas numbers, the system evolves into a mode of full-
provide a collision-rich environment which has scale ionization(Fig.1e). The same stages are ob-
revealed the spontaneous transformation of a served as a function of evolution time at fixed,
cold Rydberg gas to a plasma[1], Rydberg atom initial Rydberg populations.
formation from three-body recombination in an
ultra-cold plasma[2], and l-mixing due to inter- Initial state
actions between plasma electrons and cold Ryd-
berg atoms[3]. These processes are not indepen- Field Ionization Pulse
300
dent of one another. A comprehensive descrip- inelastic collisions l-mixing limit for n = 60
tion of the evolution of a cold Rydberg gas re- 250
a)
quires considering them simultaneously. In this
d)
Our data also provides strong evidence for in- 50