Rapid crystallization of externally produced ions in a Penning trap

TL;DR

This study demonstrates rapid cooling and crystallization of externally produced magnesium ions in a Penning trap, achieving ultracold ion crystals with shell structures and exploring sympathetic cooling methods.

Contribution

It introduces a combined buffer and laser cooling method that rapidly cools ions and forms Coulomb crystals, including two-species crystals for sympathetic cooling.

Findings

Cooling reduces ion energy by eight orders of magnitude within seconds.

Formation of ion Coulomb crystals with characteristic shell structures.

Successful production of two-species ion crystals for sympathetic cooling.

Abstract

We have studied the cooling dynamics, formation process and geometric structure of mesoscopic crystals of externally produced magnesium ions in a Penning trap. We present a cooling model and measurements for a combination of buffer gas cooling and laser cooling which has been found to reduce the ion kinetic energy by eight orders of magnitude from several hundreds of eV to micro-eV and below within seconds. With ion numbers of the order of 1000 to 100000, such cooling leads to the formation of ion Coulomb crystals which display a characteristic shell structure in agreement with theory of non-neutral plasmas. We show the production and characterization of two-species ion crystals as a means of sympathetic cooling of ions lacking a suitable laser-cooling transition.