Ions in cold electrostatic storage devices

We have constructed a compact purely electrostatic ion-beam trap, ConeTrap, which we have mounted inside a double-walled vacuum chamber. In the inner vacuum chamber, we can obtain ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions and reach thermal equilibrium at well controlled temperatures down to 10 K. The chamber was constructed partly with the purpose of making high-precision measurements in ConeTrap, but also as a test-chamber for testing components (such as the detector-assembly tested and described in this thesis and paper III) to be used in the DESIREE (Double ElectroStatic Ion Ring ExpEriment) facility. The latter is a double electrostatic ion storage-ring being constructed at Stockholm University, in which the conditions are meant to mimic the environment in the interstellar medium. The interaction between two oppositely charged ions at very low relative velocities (controlled collision energies down to 10 meV) may then be studied in a section of the storage device where the two ion beams merge. The lifetime of loosely bound electronic systems, for example He-, is, at room temperature (and even at much lower temperatures), significantly affected by photons from blackbody radiation from the experimental device and its surroundings. The cryogenic temperature and low pressure obtained in the test chamber have made it possible to use ConeTrap to make the first correction-free lifetime measurement of the long-lived J=5/2 fine-structure level of the metastable 1s2s2p 4Po state of He-. Under the assumption of a statistical population of the fine-structure levels, at the time when the ions are created, we have also deduced the lifetimes of the short-lived J=1/2 and J=3/2 fine-structure levels. Furthermore, we have used ConeTrap to measure the pressure dependent storage lifetimes of He+ and Ar+ ions over wide ranges of temperatures and pressures, and we have thus been able to store positive ions with storage lifetimes of tens of seconds.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Submitted