The design, construction, and performance of a linear radio-frequency ion trap (RFQ) intended for use in the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) are described. EXO aims to detect the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 136Xe to 136Ba. To suppress possible backgrounds EXO will complement the measurement of decay energy and, to some extent, topology of candidate events in a Xe filled detector with the identification of the daughter nucleus (136Ba). The ion trap described here is capable of accepting, cooling, and confining individual Ba ions extracted from the site of the candidate double-beta decay event. A single trapped ion can then be identified, with a large signal-to-noise ratio, via laser spectroscopy.
@article{arxiv.0704.1646,
title = {A linear RFQ ion trap for the Enriched Xenon Observatory},
author = {B. Flatt and M. Green and J. Wodin and R. DeVoe and P. Fierlinger and G. Gratta and F. LePort and M. Montero Diez and R. Neilson and K. OSullivan and A. Pocar and S. Waldman and E. Baussan and M. Breidenbach and R. Conley and W. Fairbank and J. Farine and C. Hall and K. Hall and D. Hallman and C. Hargrove and M. Hauger and J. Hodgson and F. Juget and D. S. Leonard and D. Mackay and Y. Martin and B. Mong and A. Odian and L. Ounalli and A. Piepke and C. Y. Prescott and P. C. Rowson and K. Skarpass and D. Schenker and D. Sinclair and V. Strickland and C. Virtue and J. -L. Vuilleuimier and J. -M. Vuilleuimier and K. Wamba and P. Weber},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0704.1646},
year = {2008}
}