Abstract
THE possibility of creating ordered ion beams in high-energy storage rings1,2 by means of electron and laser cooling has opened up a new era in accelerator physics. The enhanced luminosity and suppressed momentum spread in such systems create the highest possible phase-space density. The first experimental results were obtained by cooling 7Li+ beams to temperatures of a few kelvin or even to sub-kelvin temperatures3,4, and the ordered structures have been studied theoretically5–7 by methods of molecular dynamics. Predicted configurations for the lowest ion densities have been observed in low-energy quadrupole storage rings8 and linear traps9. Recently we showed that at slightly higher ion densities helical structures are obtained10. Here we present a series of new experimental results on ordered ion structures in a quadrupole storage ring. In order of increasing ion number, a linear chain of ions, a zig-zag structure, helical structures and finally multiple concentric shells could be observed. The experimental results agree with molecular dynamics calculations.
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Birkl, G., Kassner, S. & Walther, H. Multiple-shell structures of laser-cooled 24Mg+ ions in a quadrupole storage ring. Nature 357, 310–313 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/357310a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/357310a0
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