Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 26: Poster: Atomic systems in external fields
A 26.1: Poster
Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 16:30–19:00, Poster.V
Dynamics of laser-cooled Ca+ ions in a Penning trap with a rotating wall — •Manuel Vogel1, Shailen Bharadia2, Richard Thompson2, and Danny Segal2 — 1TU Darmstadt and GSI Darmstadt — 2Imperial College London, UK
We have performed systematic measurements of the dynamics of laser-cooled 40Ca+ ions confined in a Penning trap and driven by a rotating dipole field ("rotating wall"). The size and shape of the ion cloud has been monitored using a CCD camera to image the fluorescence light resulting from excitation by the cooling laser. We have systamatically varied the experimental conditions such as amplitude and frequency of the rotating wall drive as well as the trapping parameters. The rotating wall has been used for a more than 10-fold radial compression of the ion cloud thus increasing the ion density in the trap. We have also observed plasma mode excitations in agreement with theoretical expectations. This work will allow to define the optimum parameters for high compression of ions as needed for precision spectroscopy of forbidden transitions as in the SPECTRAP experiment at the HITRAP facility at GSI Darmstadt.