Electrostatic ion beam trap

The conventional way of trapping ions is based on the uses of RF or magnetic fields, like in Paul or Penning traps. In such traps the ions are stored with approximately zero kinetic energy. In many applications a well-defined ion beam is needed especially in collision experiment, where the initial direction of a beam is critical for reaction product measurements and a well defined field free region is required at the collision place. In the last few years we have developed a new type of electrostatic ion trap for ion beams of a few keV per charge, with no mass limit. The ions are injected through a stack of electrodes, which are used as an electrostatic mirror. The ions are confined in a region of few tens of centimeters by two electrostatic mirrors, located on opposite sides. The stability criterion of such a trap can be demonstrated to be similar to the one existing for optical resonator. The dynamics of such trapped ion beam was studied for various potentials on the electrostatic mirrors. Two modes of operation were found. In the first mode a self bunching effect was observed where the ion-ion Coulomb interaction generates a single bunch with constant length along the whole trapping time. This mode of operation can be used for Fourier mass spectrometry. A second mode, where the Coulomb interaction enhances the correlation between the ion position and momentum, enables phase space manipulation of the stored ion beam.