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arXiv:2609.35391

A linear Paul trap to study the equilibrium of charged micron-sized particles in air

Kissangou, Roxen, Wilby, Marius Romuald Kamsap, Mike Delon Mboumba, M. Houssin, C. Champenois

Published Sep 28, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We describe and use a macroscopic linear quadrupolar trap to explore the trapping and equilibrium properties of charged particles. These devices, when operated to trap atomic ions, are at the core of ion based quantum computer and optical atomic clock. To illustrate the characteristics of few particle trapping, and observe different force balance on a charged particle, a macroscopic linear trap, operating at room condition, is trapping micrometer-sized particles. Compared to atomic or molecular ions, their mass can not be neglected and requires an extra voltage for gravity force compensation. We show how this compensation can be demonstrated experimentally and that the choice of hollow-core glass spheres has the advantage of a good reproducibility of the experiments, that allows one to deduce with good precision the charge-to-mass ratio of the trapped particle.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2609.35391

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We describe and use a macroscopic linear quadrupolar trap to explore the trapping and equilibrium properties of charged particles. These devices, when operated to trap atomic ions, are at the core of ion based quantum computer and optical atomic clock. To illustrate the characteristics of few particle trapping, and observe different force balance on a charged particle, a macroscopic linear trap, operating at room condition, is trapping micrometer-sized particles. Compared to atomic or molecular ions, their mass can not be neglected and requires an extra voltage for gravity force compensation. We show how this compensation can be demonstrated experimentally and that the choice of hollow-core glass spheres has the advantage of a good reproducibility of the experiments, that allows one to deduce with good precision the charge-to-mass ratio of the trapped particle.
We describe and use a macroscopic linear quadrupolar trap to explore the trapping and equilibrium properties of charged particles. These devices, when operated to trap atomic ions, are at the core of ion based quantum computer and optical atomic clock. To illustrate the characteristics of few particle trapping, and observe different force balance on a charged particle, a macroscopic linear trap, operating at room condition, is trapping micrometer-sized particles. Compared to atomic or molecular ions, their mass can not be neglected and requires an extra voltage for gravity force compensation. We show how this compensation can be demonstrated experimentally and that the choice of hollow-core glass spheres has the advantage of a good reproducibility of the experiments, that allows one to deduce with good precision the charge-to-mass ratio of the trapped particle.
We describe and use a macroscopic linear quadrupolar trap to explore the trapping and equilibrium properties of charged particles. These devices, when operated to trap atomic ions, are at the core of ion based quantum computer and optical atomic clock. To illustrate the characteristics of few particle trapping, and observe different force balance on a charged particle, a macroscopic linear trap, operating at room condition, is trapping micrometer-sized particles. Compared to atomic or molecular ions, their mass can not be neglected and requires an extra voltage for gravity force compensation. We show how this compensation can be demonstrated experimentally and that the choice of hollow-core glass spheres has the advantage of a good reproducibility of the experiments, that allows one to deduce with good precision the charge-to-mass ratio of the trapped particle.
Trapped-ion devices are being investigated for transportable applications, including the transfer of exotic charged particles between laboratories and the development of portable quantum technologies. To date, ion transport has been demonstrated only in magnetic (Penning) traps, whereas radiofrequency (Paul) traps are the predominant platform in quantum science. Here, we report the first transport of a few thousand ions confined in a linear Paul trap over distances of several kilometers, with transport durations of 15 and 45 min. These results establish a foundation for mobile trapped-ion quantum devices capable of operating while in motion and may enable the transport of exotic ions in Paul traps between experimental facilities.
The quadrupole linear Paul trap is one of the key instruments in building highly stable atomic clocks. However, a frequency reference based on a single trapped ion is limited in stability due to the time needed for the interrogation cycle which cannot be further shortened. A promising strategy is the utilization of multiple trapped ions. The ions of the same kind then repulse each other with the Coulomb force, which is countered by the ponderomotive force of the time depended field in the trap. A few ions form a chain along the axis of a linear Paul trap. Adding more ions (a few tens or hundreds) gives rise to Coulomb crystals. We created an efficient simulation code which calculates the motion of such collections of ions in quasi-static radiofrequency fields of real linear quadrupole traps (including the micromotion). We include a model for laser cooling of the ions. The simulation tool can be used to study the formation and the dynamics of Coulomb crystals under conditions corresponding to various experimental setups.
Today's most sensitive experiments for detecting CP-violating permanent electric dipole moments (EDM) rely on molecular spectroscopy. The high sensitivity arises from large internal electric fields that interact with the constituents of the molecule. For molecular ions it has long been assumed that experiments with static polarization from dc electric fields are infeasible, as the ion's charge would either shift it to a field free region or eject it from the trap. This constraint appears to make single ion quantum-logic clocks, among the most precise measurement devices available, incompatible with EDM measurements. Here, we demonstrate that, under typical trapping conditions, heavy molecular ions with small Ω/ΛΩ/ΛΩ/Λ-doubling can be polarized by a static electric field while remaining confined in the Paul trap. This effect arises from a cancellation between the electrostatic force and the trap's ponderomotive force, resulting in an equilibrium position where the ion experiences a dc electric field component. Dynamic decoupling allows to implement co-magnetometry schemes in a single molecule and provides long interrogation times. This will allow the operation of a quantum-logic molecular radio-frequency clock in static electric fields, providing sensitivity to EDMs. Working with only a few ions and non-destructive detection techniques opens the door to the use of highly sensitive, rare, and radioactive molecular species as well as quantum-enhanced metrology schemes to achieve unprecedented levels of accuracy and precision.
One of the most challenging quests for physicists was represented by the goal of trapping of atomic particles,in a well controlled environment. The advent of ion traps [1] in the 1950s, influenced the future of physics andtechnology in a very profound and even revolutionary mode. High-precision spectroscopy and mass spectrometrymeasurements with unprecedented accuracy, quantum physics tests, precise control of quantum states, study ofnon-neutral plasmas, quantum metrology and quantum information processing (QIP) experiments [2], have allbeen achieved by using ion and atom traps.In order to achieve trapping of electrically charged particles, the radio-frequency (RF) Paul trap has been de-signed, which creates an effective trapping potential in the