Stability of a Penning trap with a quadrupole rotating electric field

Published

February 11, 2005

Author(s)

T Hasegawa, M J. Jensen, John Bollinger

Abstract

We present theoretical and experimental studies of the center-of-mass (COM) stability of ions in a Penning trap with a quadrupole rotating electric field. The rotation frequency of an ion cloud in a Penning trap determines the cloud density and shape, and it can be precisely controlled by a rotating electric field. The quadrupole rotating field scheme can control pure single species plasmas in contrast to the dipole field, which is only effective for plasmas composed of two or more species of ions. However, the quadrupole field can modify the trap stability because of the spatial dependence of the electric field. In this study, we theoretically and experimentally determine the COM stability condition for ions in a Penning trap with a rotating quadrupole field. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical prediction.

Citation

Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)

Volume

71

Issue

023406

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

center-of -mass stability, combined ion trap, laser cooling, non-neutral plasmas, Penning trap, rf trap, rotating electric field, rotating wall

Citation

Hasegawa, T. , Jensen, M. and Bollinger, J. (2005), Stability of a Penning trap with a quadrupole rotating electric field, Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics), [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50008 (Accessed October 12, 2025)