Photoionization cross section of Xe+ ion in the pure 5p5 2P3/2 ground level

Coupling an ion trap with synchrotron radiation is shown here to be a powerful approach to measure photoionization cross sections on ionic species relaxed in their ground state. The photoionization efficiency curve of Xe+ ions stored in a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance ion trap was recorded at ELETTRA in the 20-23 eV photon energy range. Absolute cross sections were derived by comparison of the photoionization yield of Xe+ with measurements from the ASTRID merged-beam experiment. Multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock calculations were performed for the interpretation of these new data.     

Status of the project TRAPSENSOR

Penning traps are used to perform very precise mass measurements on exotic and stable nuclei covering a variety of topics. In order to reach the highest accuracy, only one ion must be stored and measured in the trap. The mass is determined from the oscillation frequencies, by detecting the current the stored ion induces on the trap electrodes. This is a well-known technique demonstrated for ions with low or medium mass-to-charge ratios. Another technique recently proposed, and referred to as Quantum Sensor, aims at extending the applicability of single-ion Penning-trap measurements through the full atomic mass scale. The technique substitutes the electronic detection by the detection of fluorescence photons from a laser-cooled ion stored in a second Penning trap, thereafter this ion interacts with the ion of interest. The new device is under completion at the University of Granada (Spain) within the project TRAPSENSOR. This paper will present the status of this project.     

A quantum sensor for high-performance mass spectrometry

A novel device, called quantum sensor, has been conceived to measure the mass of a single ion with ultimate accuracy and unprecedented sensitivity while the ion is stored and cooled in a trap. The quantum sensor consists of a single calcium ion as sensor, which is laser cooled to mK temperatures and stored in a second trap connected to the trap for the ion under study by a common endcap. The cyclotron motion of the ion under investigation is transformed into axial motion along the magnetic field lines and coupled to the sensor ion by the image current induced in the common endcap. The axial motion of the sensor ion in turn is monitored spatially resolved by its fluorescence light. In this way the detection of phonons can be upgraded to a detection of photons. This device will allow one to overcome recent limitations in high-precision mass spectrometry.     

Antimatter plasmas in a multipole trap for antihydrogen

We have demonstrated storage of plasmas of the charged constituents of the antihydrogen atom, antiprotons and positrons, in a Penning trap surrounded by a minimum-B magnetic trap designed for holding neutral antiatoms. The neutral trap comprises a superconducting octupole and two superconducting, solenoidal mirror coils. We have measured the storage lifetimes of antiproton and positron plasmas in the combined Penning-neutral trap, and compared these to lifetimes without the neutral trap fields. The magnetic well depth was 0.6 T, deep enough to trap ground state antihydrogen atoms of up to about 0.4 K in temperature. We have demonstrated that both particle species can be stored for times long enough to permit antihydrogen production and trapping studies.     

Mixture of ultracold lithium and cesium atoms in an optical dipole trap

We present the first simultaneous trapping of two different ultracold atomic species in a conservative trap. Lithium and cesium atoms are stored in an optical dipole trap formed by the focus of a CO₂ laser. Techniques for loading both species of atoms are discussed and observations of elastic and inelastic collisions between the two species are presented. A model for sympathetic cooling of two species with strongly different mass in the presence of slow evaporation is developed. From the observed Cs-induced evaporation of Li atoms we estimate a cross-section for cold elastic Li-Cs collisions. Received: 1 August 2001 / Published online: 23 November 2001     

Penning阱中离子谱的优化

根据Penning阱存储离子的探测原理,系统分析了阱内离子信号及信号本身的噪声、实验仪器及探测电路的噪声干扰,采用适当的品质因数和电子束流,得到较高信噪比和分辨率的离子谱。为深入开展Hn^＋（n≥3）对离子的形成机制、离子与中性气体原子或分子碰撞过程等问题的研究创造了更好的条件。     

Experimental investigation of the stability diagram for Paul traps in the case of praseodymium ions

The present paper describes an investigation of non-linear resonances of praseodymium ion clouds stored in a Paul trap as a function of the storage parameters. These have been observed in traps with different ring electrode diameters. In these different traps the resonances occur for different values of the operating parameters. Discrepancies with the approximation model for one ion have been found. The intensity of the fluorescence signal and the Doppler half width have been recorded as a function of one of the storage parameters: q. We use our results to optimize the fluorescence signal of the stored ions, which is especially useful in the case of the double-resonance method.     

Laser cooling of a small number of Be+ ions in a penning trap

Be⁺ ions stored in a Penning trap were cooled by a laser beam perpendicular to the magnetic field. The cooled ions are strongly coupled and phase transitions of up to 100 ions were observed. In experiments with only a few ions stored in the trap, a stepwise decrease in fluorescence intensity was observed. All steps are of the same size and so every step is attributed to a single ion. The discrete changes in fluorescence occurred more frequently when the background pressure was increased, caused by collisions between stored ions and background neutral molecules.     

Endoscopy in the Paul trap: The influence of the micromotion

We show that three real-valued parameters govern the quantum motion of an ion stored in the Paul trap. These parameters are two angles of rotation in phase space and a squeezing parameter. The time dependence of these parameters simplifies considerably using Floquet solutions. This allows us to use the method of quantum state endoscopy to measure a pure state of the vibratory motion of an ion taking into account the full time dependence of the trapping potential. Received: 19 June 1996     

HILITE—A tool to investigate interactions of matter and light

Detailed investigations of laser–ion interactions require well-defined ion targets and detection techniques for high-sensitivity measurements of reaction educts and products. To this end, we have designed and built the High-Intensity Laser-Ion Trap Experiment Penning trap setup, which features various ion-target preparation techniques including selection, cooling, compression, and positioning as well as destructive and non-destructive measurement techniques to determine the number of stored ions for all charge states individually and simultaneously. We have recently performed first commissioning experiments of ion deceleration and dynamic ion capture with highly charged ion bunches from an electron beam ion source. We have characterized our single-pass non-destructive ion counter in detail and were able to determine the ion velocity as well as the number of ions from the signals acquired.     

Space-Charge Effects with REXTRAP

The beam quality of radioactive ion beams produced by present target ion source technology is often not sufficient for direct post-acceleration. Furthermore, pulsed beams insure a more efficient use of an accelerator. In the case of REX-ISOLDE, the post accelerator at the CERN ISOLDE facility, a gas-filled Penning trap (REXTRAP) has been chosen for accumulation of the radioactive ions and conversion into cooled bunches. Radial centering of the ions is achieved by applying an rf field with a frequency equal to the cyclotron frequency of the desired ion species. The efficiency achieved in the first tests with different isotopes covering nearly the entire mass range was already >20%. Going to total numbers of >10⁵ stored ions in the trap a shift of the centering frequency could be observed, which is most likely due to space charge effects. Despite this, it was possible to accumulate up to 10⁷ ions and deliver them as cooled bunches. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Sub-dekahertz ultraviolet spectroscopy of 199Hg+

Using a laser that is frequency locked to a Fabry-Perot etalon of high finesse and stability, we probe the 5d(10)6s (2)S(1/2)(F = 0)<-->5d(9)6s(2) (2)D(5/2)(F = 2) Deltam(F) = 0 electric-quadrupole transition of a single laser-cooled 199Hg+ ion stored in a cryogenic radio-frequency ion trap. We observe Fourier-transform limited linewidths as narrow as 6.7 Hz at 282 nm ( 1.06x10(15) Hz), yielding a line Q approximately 1.6x10(14). We perform a preliminary measurement of the 5d(9)6s(2) (2)D(5/2) electric-quadrupole shift due to interaction with the static fields of the trap, and discuss the implications for future trapped-ion optical frequency standards.     

Heating rate and electrode charging measurements in a scalable, microfabricated, surface-electrode ion trap

We characterise the performance of a surface-electrode ion “chip” trap fabricated using established semiconductor integrated circuit and micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) microfabrication processes, which are in principle scalable to much larger ion trap arrays, as proposed for implementing ion trap quantum information processing. We measure rf ion micromotion parallel and perpendicular to the plane of the trap electrodes, and find that on-package capacitors reduce this to ?10?nm in amplitude. We also measure ion trapping lifetime, charging effects due to laser light incident on the trap electrodes, and the heating rate for a single trapped ion. The performance of this trap is found to be comparable with others of the same size scale.     

Photon-trap spectroscopy of size-selected free cluster ions: “direct” measurement of optical absorption of Ag+ 9

An absorption spectrum of size-selected free cluster ions has been measured “directly” via extinction of light without relying on photodepletion/dissociation spectroscopy. The novel technique employs an ion trap and an optical cavity; cluster ions stored in an ion trap interact with photons trapped in a cavity. The storage lifetime of photons in the cavity provides “direct” observation of extinction of light (photon-trap spectroscopy, which is a generalized scheme of cavity ring-down spectroscopy). The first measurement is performed on ultraviolet absorption of Ag₉ ⁺. Temperature dependence of the spectrum is presented by cooling the ion trap down to 10 K.     

Recent developments in ion detection techniques for Penning trap mass spectrometry at TRIGA-TRAP

The highest precision in the determination of nuclear and atomic masses can be achieved by Penning trap mass spectrometry. The mass value is obtained through a measurement of the cyclotron frequency of the stored charged particle. Two different approaches are used at the Penning trap mass spectrometer TRIGA-TRAP for the mass determination: the destructive Time-Of-Flight Ion Cyclotron Resonance (TOF-ICR) technique and the non-destructive Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FT-ICR) method. New developments for both techniques are described, which will improve the detection efficiency and the suppression of contaminations in the case of TOF-ICR. The FT-ICR detection systems will allow for the investigation of an incoming ion bunch from a radioactive-beam facility on the one hand, and for the detection of a single singly charged ion in the Penning trap on the other hand.     

激光脉冲作用下囚禁离子的规则与混沌运动

研究驻波型激光脉冲作用下，失谐量足够大时，囚禁于Paul阱中的单离子系统的久期运动.通过分析和数值计算相结合的方法，导出系统的精确解及其描述的时间演化性质，得到系统的规则和混沌运动轨道以及阱频很小时系统进入整体混沌的临界条件,并提出了控制系统共振失稳的方法. 关键词： 激光脉冲 囚禁离子 规则与混沌运动 精确解 稳定性     

Precision laser spectroscopy without optical detection

Laser spectroscopy of trapped ions is likely to be limited by the availability of suitable detection systems for fluorescence photons, especially in the infrared transition frequency domain. This restriction can be circumvented when ions are stored in a Penning trap with an additional magnetic field inhomogeneity which couples the ion oscillation frequencies to the oscillation energies in a well-defined way. In such a case, laser cooling (or heating) on the optical transition of interest can be detected electronically by a corresponding shift of the ion oscillation frequency. Thereby, the transition of interest can be determined with high accuracy using only a single stored ion and in absence of any optical detection system.     

A double Paul trap system for the electronic coupling of ions

We report on the progress towards the implementation of a double trap system for the coupling of ion clouds stored in different traps through the charges they induce in a common electrode. The two traps have cylindrical symmetry and can be used either as Penning or Paul traps. The laser system for Doppler cooling of ⁴⁰Ca⁺ clouds is described. The cooling can be performed differentially in the two traps, aiming at the study of the coupling between two clouds of ions at different temperatures. This setup is the starting point for the realization of energy transfer between two Doppler-cooled ions stored in different traps. We report on the status of the experiment and evaluate the performance required for an efficient coupling.     

Experimental studies at JYFLTRAP

JYFLTRAP is a Penning trap system at the accelerator laboratory in Jyväskylä, Finland that enables high-precision experiments with stored, exotic species that are produced at the IGISOL facility. On one hand, these can be performed within the trap itself, like e.g. mass spectrometry. On the other hand, the trap can be used to provide the highly purified species for further experiments, e.g. for trap-assisted nuclear decay spectroscopy. This contribution focuses on these two possible applications with the presentation of some recent results on superallowed beta decays.     

A grooved planar ion trap design for scalable quantum information processing

We describe a new electrode design for a grooved surface-electrode ion trap,which is fabricated in printed-circuitboard technology with segmented electrodes.This design allows a laser beam to get through the central groove to avoid optical access blocking and laser scattering from the ion trap surface.The confining potentials are modeled both analytically and numerically.We optimize the radio frequency(rf) electrodes and dc electrodes to achieve the maximum trap depth for a given ion height above the trap electrodes.We also compare our design with the reality ion chip MI I for practical considerations.Comparison results show that our design is superior to MI I.This ion trap design may form the basis for large scale quantum computers or parallel quadrupole mass spectrometers.