Capture and isolation of highly-charged ions in a unitary Penning trap

Abstract

We recently used a compact Penning trap to capture and isolate highly-charged ions extracted from an electron beam ion trap (EBIT) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Isolated charge states of highly-stripped argon and neon ions with total charge $Q\ge 10$, extracted at energies of up to $4\times 10^{3}Q$ eV, are captured in a trap with well depths of $\approx (4\mathrm{to}12)Q$ eV. Here we discuss in detail the process to optimize velocity-tuning, capture, and storage of highly-charged ions in a unitary Penning trap designed to provide easy radial access for atomic or laser beams in charge exchange or spectroscopic experiments, such as those of interest for proposed studies of one-electron ions in Rydberg states or optical transitions of metastable states in multiply-charged ions. Under near-optimal conditions, ions captured and isolated in such rare-earth Penning traps can be characterized by an initial energy distribution that is $\approx$ 60 times narrower than typically found in an EBIT. This reduction in thermal energy is obtained passively, without the application of any active cooling scheme in the ion-capture trap.

10 pages, 11 figures, Accepted in Phys. Rev. A

References in corpus (7)

• Enhanced laboratory sensitivity to variation of the fine-structure constant using highly-charged ions
• Highly-charged ions as a basis of optical atomic clockwork of exceptional accuracy
• Fundamental constants and tests of theory in Rydberg states of hydrogen-like ions
• High-precision atomic clocks with highly charged ions: nuclear spin-zero $f^{12}$-shell ions
• Fe XVII X-ray Line Ratios for Accurate Astrophysical Plasma Diagnostics
• Ion clock and search for the variation of the fine structure constant using optical transitions in Nd${}^{13+}$ and Sm${}^{15+}$
• Penning traps with unitary architecture for storage of highly charged ions

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Highly charged ions: optical clocks and applications in fundamental physics
• QED tests with highly-charged ions
• The Heidelberg compact electron beam ion traps
• Atomic properties of Cd-like and Sn-like ions for the development of frequency standards and search for the variation of the fine-structure constant
• Measurement of the Kr XVIII 3d ${}^2{D}_{5/2}$ lifetime at low energy in a unitary Penning trap
• Quadruply Ionized Barium as a Candidate for a High-Accuracy Optical Clock