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Stability of Coulomb crystals in a linear Paul trap with storage-ring-like confinement
Niels Kjaergaard1, Kristian Mølhave, Michael Drewsen
1Optics and Fluid Dynamics Department, Risø National Laboratory, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark. niels.kjaergaard@risoe.dk
Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|September 21, 2002
Abstract:
We report experiments on the stability of ion Coulomb crystals in a linear Paul trap with storage-ring-like confinement. The transverse dynamics of charged particles in a trap of this type is analogous to that of a fast beam traveling through a channel with periodic, magnetic alternating gradient confinement. The experimentally observed stability conditions for stationary crystals comply remarkably well with current theory of crystalline plasmas and beams.