Combined ion and atom trap for low temperature ion-atom physics

Abstract

We report an experimental apparatus and technique which simultaneously traps ions and cold atoms with spatial overlap. Such an apparatus is motivated by the study of ion-atom processes at temperatures ranging from hot to ultra-cold. This area is a largely unexplored domain of physics with cold trapped atoms. In this article we discuss the general design considerations for combining these two traps and present our experimental setup. The ion trap and atom traps are characterized independently of each other. The simultaneous operation of both is then described and experimental signatures of the effect of the ions and cold-atoms on each other are presented. In conclusion the use of such an instrument for several problems in physics and chemistry is briefly discussed.

24 pages, 13 figures. Figures Fixed

References in corpus (6)

• Quantum State Engineering and Precision Metrology using State-Insensitive Light Traps
• A trapped single ion inside a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Dynamics of a cold trapped ion in a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Cold heteronuclear atom-ion collisions
• Bright Source of Cold Ions for Surface-Electrode Traps
• Hybrid quantum systems of atoms and ions

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Cold hybrid ion-atom systems
• Sympathetic and swap cooling of trapped ions by cold atoms in a MOT
• Cold atom-ion experiments in hybrid traps
• Unraveling the Structure of Ultracold Mesoscopic Molecular Ions
• Formation of molecular ions by radiative association of cold trapped atoms and ions
• Photodissociation of trapped Rb${}_2^{+}$ : Implications for simultaneous trapping of atoms and molecular ions
• Measurement of collisions between rubidium atoms and optically dark rubidium ions
• Measurement of low-energy Na^+ -- Na total collision rate in an ion--neutral hybrid trap
• Collisional cooling of light ions by co-trapped heavy atoms
• Cooling of trapped ions by resonant charge exchange
• A hybrid ion-atom trap with integrated high resolution mass spectrometer
• Interactions and low energy collisions between an alkali ion and an alkali atom of different nucleus
• Loading a linear Paul trap to saturation from a magneto-optical trap