A compact Penning trap for light ions

We describe the construction of a novel compact Penning trap from strong permanent magnets for trapping light ions. Our cylindrically symmetric, iron-free magnetic configuration allows fully analytical treatment, is easy to handle and to optimize. The magnetic field inhomogeneity is less than 1% in a volume of 1 cm³ at 0.7 T. The stored H⁺ and H ₂ ⁺ ions in this trap are detected electrically by the rf absorption method. The charge density, total number and storage time of the trapped ions are measured.Dedicated to H. Walther on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Laser-cooled positron source

We examine, theoretically, the feasibility of producing a sample of cold (⩽4 K), high-density (≈10¹⁰/cm³) positrons in a Penning trap. We assume⁹Be⁺ ions are first loaded into the trap and laser-cooled to approximately 10 mK where they form a uniform density column centered on the trap axis. Positrons from a moderator are then injected into the trap along the direction of the magnetic field through an aperture in one endcap of the trap so that they intersect the⁹Be⁺ column. Positron/⁹Be⁺ Coulomb collisions extract axial energy from the positrons and prevent them from escaping back out the entrance aperture. Cooling provided by cyclotron radiation and sympathetic cooling with the laser-cooled⁹Be⁺ ions causes the positrons to eventually coalesce into a cold column along the trap axis. We present estimates of the efficiency for capture of the positrons and estimates of densities and temperatures of the resulting positron column. Positrons trapped in this way may be interesting as a source for antihydrogen production, as an example of a quantum plasma, and as a possible means to produce a bright beam of positrons by leaking them out along the axis of the trap. Contribution of the National Institute of Standards and Technology; not subject to US copyright.     

Bose-Einstein condensation of 87Rb in a levitated crossed dipole trap

We report an apparatus and method capable of producing Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of ～1 × 10^{6 87}Rb atoms, and ultimately designed for sympathetic cooling of ¹³³Cs and the creation of ultracold RbCs molecules. The method combines several elements: (i) the large recapture of a magnetic quadrupole trap from a magneto-optical trap; (ii) efficient forced RF evaporation in such a magnetic trap; (iii) the gain in phase-space density obtained when loading the magnetically trapped atoms into a far red-detuned optical dipole trap, and (iv) efficient evaporation to BEC within the dipole trap. We demonstrate that the system is capable of sympathetically cooling the |F = 1, m _F = ?1〉 and |1,0? sublevels with |1, +1〉 atoms. Finally we discuss the applicability of the method to sympathetic cooling of ¹³³Cs with ⁸⁷Rb.     

The anomalous magnetic moment of the electron in hydrogenlike ions

The precise determination of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron bound in hydrogen-like ions allows for a stringent test of quantum electrodynamics (QED)in the presence of strong electric fields. g-factor measurements on the electron bound in hydrogen-like ions ¹²C⁵⁺ and ¹⁶O⁷⁺, using single ions confined in a Penning trap, have yielded values in agreement with theory on the ppb level. If the QED calculations are considered correct, the results can in turn be used for a determination of fundamental constants like the electron mass m_e, the fine structure constant α or nuclear parameters. We report about presentdevelopments towards g-factor measurements also in medium-heavy and heavy highly-charged ions.     

Simple and efficient magnetic transport of cold atoms using moving coils for the production of Bose–Einstein condensation

We have developed a simple magnetic transport method for the efficient loading of cold atoms into a magnetic trap. Laser-cooled ⁸⁷Rb atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) are transferred to a quadrupole magnetic trap and they are then transported as far as 50 cm by moving magnetic trap coils with a low excess heating of atoms. A light induced atom desorption technique helps to reduce the collision loss during the magnetic transport. Using this method, we can load cold ⁸⁷Rb atoms into a magnetic trap in an ultra high vacuum chamber with high efficiency, and we can produce ⁸⁷Rb condensate atoms. PACS 39.25.+k; 32.80.Pj; 03.75.Pp     

Transport of a quantum degenerate heteronuclear Bose-Fermi mixture in a harmonic trap

We report on the simultaneous transport of mixed quantum degenerate gases of bosonic ⁸⁷Rb and fermionic ⁴⁰ K in a harmonic potential. The samples are transported over a distance of to the geometric center of a Ioffe-Pritchard type magnetic trap. This transport mechanism was implemented by modification of the QUIC trap and is free of losses and heating. It significantly extends the capabilities of this trap design. We demonstrate a launching mechanism for quantum degenerate samples and show that highly homogeneous magnetic fields can be created in the center of the QUIC trap. The transport mechanism may also be cascaded to cover even larger distances for interferometric experiments with quantum degenerate samples.     

SMILETRAP — Atomic mass measurements with ppb accuracy by using highly charged ions

In the SMILETRAP facility externally produced highly charged ions are captured in a Penning trap and utilized for high precision measurements of atomic masses. Accuracy tests on a ppb level have been performed, using highly charged carbon, oxygen and neon ions. In all cases hydrogen ions served as a reference for the calibration and monitoring of the magnetic field in the trap. Deviations smaller than 3 ppb from the expected results were found in mass measurements of the¹⁶O and²⁰Ne atomic masses. The proton atomic mass, determined from the reference measurements on hydrogen ions, is in good agreement with the accepted value [1]. A direct mass measurement on the⁸⁶Kr-isotope, using trapped⁸⁶Kr²⁹⁺-ions is reported.     

Precise - and -factor measurements of Ba+ isotopes

Laser-microwave double and triple resonance experiments were performed on clouds of Ba⁺ ions confined in a Penning ion trap to induce and detect electronic and nuclear spin flip transitions. Collisions with buffer gas molecules in the trap was used to reduce the lifetime of a long lived metastable state of the ions, in which population trapping might occur, and to cool the ions to the ambient temperature. Loss of ions from the trap by collisions were prevented by coupling the magnetron and reduced cyclotron motions by an additional r.f. field at the sum frequency of the two motions. Electronic Zeeman transitions in ¹³⁸Ba⁺ and ¹³⁵Ba⁺ were observed at a full width of about 3 kHz at a transition frequency of 80 GHz. The uncertainty of the line center was . From the magnetic field calibration by the cyclotron resonance of electrons stored in the same trap the g_J-factor for both isotopes could be determined to . From radiofrequency induced transitions of ¹³⁵Ba⁺ the nuclear g-factor could be determined . Both measurements improve earlier results by about one order of magnitude. Received: 9 July 1998 / Accepted: 14 July 1998     

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.     

A high-precision segmented Paul trap with minimized micromotion for an optical multiple-ion clock

We present a new setup to sympathetically cool ¹¹⁵In⁺ ions with ¹⁷²Yb⁺ for optical clock spectroscopy. A first prototype ion trap made of glass-reinforced thermoset laminates was built, based on a design that minimizes axial micromotion and offers full control of the ion dynamics in all three dimensions. We detail the trap manufacturing process and the characterization of micromotion in this trap. A calibration of the photon-correlation spectroscopy technique demonstrates a resolution of 1.1 nm in motional amplitude of our measurements. With this method, we demonstrate a sensitivity to systematic clock shifts due to excess micromotion of $|(\Updelta\nu/\nu)_{\rm mm}|=7.7\times10^{-20}$ along the direction of the spectroscopy laser beam. Owing to our on-board filter electronics on the ion trap chips, no rf phase shifts could be resolved at this level. We measured rf fields over a range of 400 μm along the ion trap axis and demonstrated a region of 70 μm where an optical frequency standard with a fractional inaccuracy of ≤1 × 10^?18 due to micromotion can be operated.     

Visible spectra of heavy ions with an open 4f shell

We present visible to near-infrared spectra of highly charged Yb (the atomic number 70) and W (74) obtained with a compact electron beam ion trap. By observing the dependence on the electron beam energy, the charge state that should be assigned to the observed lines is determined. For In-like Yb²¹⁺ and W²⁵⁺ and Sn-like W²⁴⁺, the experimental spectra are compared with theoretical calculations done by the CI+all-order method. In each spectrum, the most prominent line is identified as the magnetic dipole transition from the first excited fine structure level to the ground level in the ground electronic configuration, 4f³ for In-like ions and 4f⁴ for Sn-like ions.     

Experiments with an ion-neutral hybrid trap: cold charge-exchange collisions

Due to their large trap depths (～1 eV or 10,000 K), versatility, and ease of construction, Paul traps have important uses in high-resolution spectroscopy, plasma physics, and precision measurements of fundamental constants. An ion-neutral hybrid trap consisting of two separate but spatially concentric traps [a magneto-optic trap (MOT) for the neutral species and a mass-selective linear Paul trap for the ionic species] is an ideal apparatus for sympathetic cooling. However, over the past few years, hybrid traps have proven most useful in measuring elastic and charge-exchange rate constants of ion-neutral collisions over a wide temperature range from kilo-Kelvin to nano-Kelvin. We report some initially surprising results from a hybrid trap system in our laboratory where we have loaded the Paul trap with Ca⁺ ions in the presence of a Na MOT (localized dense gas of cold Na atoms). We find a strong loss of Ca⁺ ions with MOT exposure, attributed to an exothermic, non-resonant ion-neutral charge-exchange process with an activation barrier, which leads to the formation of Na⁺ ions. We propose a detailed mechanism for this process. We obtain an estimated measure of the rate constant for this charge exchange of ～2 × 10^?11  cm³/s, much less than the Langevin rate, which suggests that the Langevin assumption of unit efficiency in the reaction region is not correct in this case.     

Precise spectroscopy for fundamental physics

We have applied experimental techniques that were developed for use in atomic frequency standards andclocks to investigations of local Lorentz invariance, the linearity of quantum mechanics, andanomalous long-range spin-dependent forces. These experiments used a hyperfine transition in⁹Be⁺ ions in a Penning trap. Recently, we have studied hyperfine transitions in¹⁹⁹Hg⁺ ions in a linear rf trap. Hg⁺ ions might be used for similar investigations in the future.Work of the National Institute of Standards andTechnology. Not subject to US copyright.     

Structure and control of Coulomb crystals in a Penning trap

We apply rotating electric fields to ion plasmas in a Penning trap to obtain phase-locked rotation about the magnetic field axis. These plasmas, containing up to 10^{6 9}Be⁺ ions, are laser-cooled to millikelvin temperatures so that they freeze into solids. Single body-centered cubic (bcc) crystals have been observed by Bragg scattering in nearly spherical plasmas with ≳ 2 × 10⁵ ions. The detection of the Bragg patterns is synchronized with the plasma rotation, so individual peaks are observed. With phase-locked rotation, the crystal lattice and its orientation can be stable for longer than 30 min or ∼10⁸ rotations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Electron spin resonance in Ge0.99Mn0.01 nanowires

Electron spin resonance (ESR) is measured in arrays of Ge_0.99Mn_0.01 nanowires (NWs). We show that the ESR spectrum comprises four lines corresponding to the different magnetic subsystems. Two lines are attributed to spin-wave excitations in the Mn⁺³ ion subsystem. The third component corresponds to the resonance in the Mn⁺² ions. The last component has an asymmetric Dyson form and characterizes the resonance in the mobile paramagnetic centers. We demonstrate that temperature dependences of ESR parameters are correlated in subsystems of the localized magnetic centers (Mn⁺³ and Mn⁺² ions) and delocalized band carriers. It implies the presence of exchange interactions between the localized Mn ions and spin-polarized carriers.     

Ion bunch stacking in a Penning trap after purification in an electrostatic mirror trap

The success of many measurements in analytical mass spectrometry as well as in precision mass determinations for atomic and nuclear physics is handicapped when the ion sources deliver “contaminations”, i.e., unwanted ions of masses similar to those of the ions of interest. In particular, in ion-trapping devices, large amounts of contaminant ions result in significant systematic errors—if the measurements are possible at all. We present a solution for such cases: The ions from a quasi-continuous source are bunched in a linear radio-frequency-quadrupole ion trap, separated by a multi-reflection time-of-flight section followed by a Bradbury–Nielsen gate, and then captured in a Penning trap. Buffer-gas cooling is used to damp the ion motion in the latter, which allows a repeated opening of the Penning trap for a stacking of mass-selected ion bunches. Proof-of-principle demonstrations have been performed with the ISOLTRAP setup at ISOLDE/CERN, both with ¹³³Cs⁺ ions from an off-line ion source and by application to an on-line beam of ¹⁷⁹Lu⁺ ions contaminated with ¹⁶³Dy¹⁶O⁺ ions. In addition, an optimization of the experimental procedure is given, in particular for the number of ion bunches captured as a function of the ions’ lifetimes and the parameters of the experiment .     

A thin wire ion trap to study ion–atom collisions built within a Fabry–Perot cavity

We report on the implementation of a thin wire Paul trap with tungsten wire electrodes for trapping ions. The ion trap geometry, though compact, allows large optical access enabling a moderate finesse Fabry–Perot cavity to be built along the ion trap axis. The design allows a vapor-loaded magneto-optical trap of alkali atoms to be overlapped with trapped atomic or molecular ions. The construction and design of the trap are discussed, and its operating parameters are determined, both experimentally and numerically, for Rb⁺. The macromotion frequencies of the ion trap for ⁸⁵Rb⁺ are determined to be f _r  = 43 kHz for the radial and f _z  = 54 kHz for the axial frequencies, for the experimentally determined optimal operating parameters. The destructive off axis ion extraction and detection by ion counting is demonstrated. Finally, evidence for the stabilization and cooling of trapped ions, due to ion–atom interactions, is presented by studying the ion-atom mixture as a function of interaction time. The utility and flexibility of the whole apparatus, for a variety of atomic physics experiments, are discussed in conclusion.     

Subpicosecond pulse generation in synchronously pumped energy transfer dye lasers

We describe a laser-cooling experiment on Mg⁺ ions confined in an electromagnetic trap (Penning trap or rf trap) and give the preliminary experimental results. In particular, we have observed a laser cooling in the Penning trap configuration in which a measured temperature of about 1 K has been obtained.     

Linear Paul trap design for an optical clock with Coulomb crystals

We report on the design of a segmented linear Paul trap for optical clock applications using trapped ion Coulomb crystals. For an optical clock with an improved short-term stability and a fractional frequency uncertainty of 10^?18, we propose ¹¹⁵In⁺ ions sympathetically cooled by ¹⁷²Yb⁺. We discuss the systematic frequency shifts of such a frequency standard. In particular, we elaborate on high-precision calculations of the electric radiofrequency field of the ion trap using the finite element method. These calculations are used to find a scalable design with minimized excess micromotion of the ions at a level at which the corresponding second-order Doppler shift contributes less than 10^?18 to the relative uncertainty of the frequency standard.     

Quantum control of 88Sr+ in a miniature linear Paul trap

We report on the construction and characterization of an apparatus for quantum information experiments using ⁸⁸Sr⁺ ions. A miniature linear radio-frequency (rf) Paul trap was designed and built. Trap frequencies above 1 MHz in all directions are obtained with 50 V on the trap end-caps and less than 1 W of rf power. We encode a quantum bit (qubit) in the two spin states of the S _1/2 electronic ground-state of the ion. We constructed all the necessary laser sources for laser cooling and full coherent manipulation of the ions’ external and internal states. Oscillating magnetic fields are used for coherent spin rotations. High-fidelity readout as well as a coherence time of 2.5 ms are demonstrated. Following resolved sideband cooling the average axial vibrational quanta of a single trapped ion is $\bar{n}=0.05$ and a heating rate of $\dot{\bar{n}}=0.016~\mathrm{ms}^{-1}$ is measured.