A Double Ion Trap for Large Coulomb Crystals

Abstract. While the linear radiofrequency trap finds various applications in high-precision spec-troscopy and quantum information, its higher-order cousin, the linear multipole trap, is almost exclu-sively employed in physical chemistry. Recently, first experiments have shown interesting features by laser-cooling multipole-trapped ion clouds. Multipole traps show a flatter potential in their cen-tre and therefore a modified density distribution compared to quadrupole traps. Micromotion is an important issue and will certainly influence the dynamics of crystallized ion structures. Our experi-ment tends to investigate possible crystallization processes in the multipole. In a more general way, we are interested in the study of the dynamics and thermodynamics of large ion clouds in traps of different geometry