In this paper two groups of applications of ion traps will be discussed: those on high precision spectroscopy of single ions and on the investigation of phase transitions of a few ions in traps. Emphasis will be given on recent experiments in our laboratory.
Recent experimental works with ion traps are surveyed.Ion traps can confine ions of very low-energy in a small space, and they are useful tools for the precise spectroscopy of ions.Basic ideas on trapping mechanism of several types of the traps and detection methods of trapped ions are summarized.Major topics are ultrahigh-resolution spectroscopy of ions using laser cooling methods and physics on one-component plasmas such as localization, phase transition and crystallization of ion cloud.Applications to elementary particle physics , nuclear physics and atomic physics on multiply charged ions are also presented.
Ion traps are fantastic tools to explore the world of electrons, atomic and molecular ions, or charged clusters, in the classical as well as in the quantum regime. Extremely long storage times allow probing even of single particles with very high precision. The mass selectivity of the trapping devices is exploited in many experiments, in particular for mass metrology. An overwhelming part of the experiments and ideas rely on the very high level of parameter control which is offered by the ion trap. Manipulation of individual ions and engineering of well defined quantum states are the fundamental techniques to take the experiments beyond existing frontiers and to unprecedented precision. This special issue presents state-of-the-art theory and experiments in a variety of tutorials, reviews and research papers. More than half of these contributions form a follow-up to the first workshop on Modern Applications of Trapped Ions held in Les Houches, France, in May 2008. A great number of topics is covered in atomic and molecular physics, with ion traps as a common tool. The variety of approaches is meant to make this digest a helpful resource to the whole ion trapping community. Among the contributions, four major – while still overlapping – domains can be identified. Novel ion trap design is the motor of future developments and applications. Spectacular progress has been made in the domain of quantum information processing, such as the realization of planar traps, which opens the way to large-scale quantum computation. In this issue, this enthralling subject is introduced by a tutorial and two review articles, completed by contributions on different experimental realizations. Precision measurements belong to a more traditional domain which nevertheless evolves at the forefront of research: metrology of frequencies and fundamental constants, measurements of g-factors or high-precision mass measurements are the foundations of atomic and molecular physics. The creation and investigation of cold molecular ions and clusters are among the fastest growing topics, leading to ultracold chemistry at the single-particle scale. The next edition of this meeting series will take the name of European Conference on Trapped Ions (ECTI) and will be held in the UK in 2010. We are looking forward to this event, which will offer the possibility to continue the fruitful interaction between research groups that employ ion traps in widely different contexts, and to take the next snapshot of this dynamic research area.
Ion traps are fantastic tools to explore the world of electrons, atomic and molecular ions, or charged clusters, in the classical as well as in the quantum regime. Extremely long storage times allow probing even of single particles with very high precision. The mass selectivity of the trapping devices is exploited in many experiments, in particular for mass metrology. An overwhelming part of the experiments and ideas rely on the very high level of parameter control which is offered by the ion trap. Manipulation of individual ions and engineering of well defined quantum states are the fundamental techniques to take the experiments beyond existing frontiers and to unprecedented precision. This special issue presents state-of-the-art theory and experiments in a variety of tutorials, reviews and research papers. More than half of these contributions form a follow-up to the first workshop on Modern Applications of Trapped Ions held in Les Houches, France, in May 2008. A great number of topics is covered in atomic and molecular physics, with ion traps as a common tool. The variety of approaches is meant to make this digest a helpful resource to the whole ion trapping community. Among the contributions, four major – while still overlapping – domains can be identified. Novel ion trap design is the motor of future developments and applications. Spectacular progress has been made in the domain of quantum information processing, such as the realization of planar traps, which opens the way to large-scale quantum computation. In this issue, this enthralling subject is introduced by a tutorial and two review articles, completed by contributions on different experimental realizations. Precision measurements belong to a more traditional domain which nevertheless evolves at the forefront of research: metrology of frequencies and fundamental constants, measurements of g-factors or high-precision mass measurements are the foundations of atomic and molecular physics. The creation and investigation of cold molecular ions and clusters are among the fastest growing topics, leading to ultracold chemistry at the single-particle scale. The next edition of this meeting series will take the name of European Conference on Trapped Ions (ECTI) and will be held in the UK in 2010. We are looking forward to this event, which will offer the possibility to continue the fruitful interaction between research groups that employ ion traps in widely different contexts, and to take the next snapshot of this dynamic research area.
Examples of recent experiments are presented which show characteristic features associated with the technique of ion trapping: Ultrahigh resolution in hyperfine spectroscopy due to long coherence time, lifetime measurements for very long living states and rare isotope investigation due to the high sensitivity of optical detection of stored ions. The possibility of experiments of fundamental quantum mechanical interest will be pointed out. In addition a few open questions associated with the behaviour of large ion clouds, which might influence the precision of future experiments, will be discussed.
Abstract In this chapter we present applications of ion traps to: (i) determination of the g-value of an electron from electron spin resonance experiments on a single electron, (ii) observation of quantum jumps in a single trapped ion, (iii) an experimental test of the quantum Zeno effect, (iv) a precision test of the linearity of quantum mechanics, (v) a range of studies on one-component microplasmas, (vi) optical spectroscopy of molecular ions, (vii) precision mass measurement of stable isotopes, (viii) precision mass measurement of radioactive isotopes, (ix) trapping and precision mass measurement of antimatter, specifically of antiprotons, (x) lifetime measurement of neutron undergoing beta decay, and (xi) atomic physics of highly charged ions.