Ellipsoidal Coulomb Crystals in a Linear Radiofrequency Trap
Plasma Physics
2009-11-10 v1 Atomic Physics
Abstract
A static quadrupole potential breaks the cylindrical symmetry of the effective potential of a linear rf trap. For a one-component fluid plasma at low temperature, the resulting equilibrium charge distribution is predicted to be an ellipsoid. We have produced laser-cooled Be ellipsoidal ion crystals and found good agreement between their shapes and the cold fluid prediction. In two-species mixtures, containing Be and sympathetically cooled ions of lower mass, a sufficiently strong static quadrupole potential produces a spatial separation of the species.
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0412054,
title = {Ellipsoidal Coulomb Crystals in a Linear Radiofrequency Trap},
author = {U. Fröhlich and B. Roth and S. Schiller},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0412054},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 figures