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arXiv:2609.35825

A Scalable Stacked-Electrode Printed Circuit Board Radio-Frequency Quadrupole (PCB-RFQ) for Precision Experiments

Tayemar K. Fowler-Davis, Moritz Pascal Reiter, Nawaf Altasan, Samuel Ayet San Andrés, Peter Black, Jason Breyiannis, Callum L. Brown, Peter Dasiukevich, Adam Zaki Davies, T. Dickel, Oscar Hall, Alexandru Hau, Jamie Jones, Jan Kocka, Gabriella Kripkó-Koncz, K Linkowski, Adam J. McCarter, Sophia Scrimshaw, J. Simon, Jack Lee Smith, W. R. Plaß, Gemma Robertson, Jiajun Yu, Alexandra Zadvornaya

Published Sep 22, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Linear radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) traps are crucial for ion and phase-space manipulation across diverse physics platforms, including quantum information processing, precision atomic spectroscopy, and high-resolution mass or laser spectrometry. We present the design, electrostatic field optimization, and performance characterization of a scalable, multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB) linear RFQ trap. By utilizing a PCB-based "stacked-electrode" geometry to generate high-quality quadrupolar fields, this architecture suppresses higher-order multipole field components by up to an order of magnitude compared to planar "flat surface-electrode" designs and allows for reclaiming up to 60% of the radial pseudopotential-well depth of an ideal hyperbolic quadrupole. Following a thorough optimisation and characterization using both simulations and experiments, we demonstrate its suitability as a cooler buncher, showing rapid helium buffer-gas cooling with time constants between 34 +/- 3 us and 412 +/- 23 us, and achieving a highly compressed longitudinal phase-space emittance of only 58 +/- 4 eV*ns. The low beam emittance provides flexible control of the extracted bunch properties: weak extraction fields yield energy spreads down to 2.5 +/- 0.4 eV, whereas strong fields produce ultra-narrow temporal widths down to 2.6 +/- 0.3 ns. The results establish our PCB-RFQ platform as a versatile, scalable, and cost-effective alternative to traditionally machined rod-based RFQ assemblies for advanced ion-trapping, beam-preparation, or quantum applications.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2609.35825

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Linear radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) traps are crucial for ion and phase-space manipulation across diverse physics platforms, including quantum information processing, precision atomic spectroscopy, and high-resolution mass or laser spectrometry. We present the design, electrostatic field optimization, and performance characterization of a scalable, multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB) linear RFQ trap. By utilizing a PCB-based "stacked-electrode" geometry to generate high-quality quadrupolar fields, this architecture suppresses higher-order multipole field components by up to an order of magnitude compared to planar "flat surface-electrode" designs and allows for reclaiming up to 60% of the radial pseudopotential-well depth of an ideal hyperbolic quadrupole. Following a thorough optimisation and characterization using both simulations and experiments, we demonstrate its suitability as a cooler buncher, showing rapid helium buffer-gas cooling with time constants between 34 +/- 3 us and 412 +/- 23 us, and achieving a highly compressed longitudinal phase-space emittance of only 58 +/- 4 eV*ns. The low beam emittance provides flexible control of the extracted bunch properties: weak extraction fields yield energy spreads down to 2.5 +/- 0.4 eV, whereas strong fields produce ultra-narrow temporal widths down to 2.6 +/- 0.3 ns. The results establish our PCB-RFQ platform as a versatile, scalable, and cost-effective alternative to traditionally machined rod-based RFQ assemblies for advanced ion-trapping, beam-preparation, or quantum applications.
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Paul traps are widely used to confine electrically charged particles like atomic and molecular ions by using an intense radiofrequency (RF) field, typically obtained by a voltage drop on capacitative electrodes placed in vacuum. We present a RF drive realized on a compact printed circuit board and providing a high-voltage RF signal to a quadrupole Paul trap. The circuit is formed by using four interdependent resonant circuits - each of which is connected to an electrode of a Paul trap - fed by low-noise amplifiers, leading to an output voltage of peak-to-peak amplitude up to 200 V at 3.23 MHz. The presence of a single resonant circuit for each electrode ensures a strong control on the voltage drop on each electrode, e.g., by applying a DC field through a bias tee. Additionally, the moderate quality factor Q = 67 of the resonant circuits ensures a fast operation of the drive, which can be turned on and off in less than 10 μs. Finally, the RF lines are equipped with pickups that sample the RF in phase and amplitude, thus providing a signal that can be used to actively control the voltage drop at the trap's electrodes.