Laser-Cooled Ion Beams and Strongly Coupled Plasmas for Precision Experiments

Abstract

The first part of this thesis summarizes the results of laser-cooling of relativistic C3+ ion beams at the ESR/GSI. It is shown that laser cooling at high beam energies is feasible and that momentum spreads much smaller than those observed for electron cooling can be achieved. Resulty indicate that space-charge dominated beams have been observed, reaching the regime of strong coupling which is an essential prerequisite for beam crystallization. Moderate electron cooling was employed to create three-dimensionally cold beams. With the laser cooled beams it was possible to perform precision VUV spectroscopy of the cooling transition. In the second part results on large-scale realistic simulations on the stopping of highly charged ions in a laser-cooled one-component plasma of 24Mg+ ions confined in a harmonic potential are presented. It is shown that cooling times short enough for cooling unstable nuclei can be achieved and fast recooling of the plasma is possible. With this cooling scheme highly charged ions for precision experiments such as mass spectrometry in Penning traps at millikelvin temperatures can be delivered.

• Item Type: Thesis (Dissertation, LMU Munich)
• Keywords: laser-cooling, trap, storage ring, relativistic energy, strong coupling, plasma, spectroscopy, stopping, sympathetic cooling, simulation, molecular dynamics, fluorescence, accelerator physics, mass spectrometry, paul trap, penning trap, VUV
• Dewey Decimal Classification: 600 Natural sciences and mathematics; 600 Natural sciences and mathematics > 530 Physics
• Faculties: Faculty of Physics
• Language: English
• Date Accepted: 17. March 2008
• 1. Referee: Habs, Dietrich
• Persistent Identifier (URN): urn:nbn:de:bvb:19-97290
• Signature of the printed copy: 0001/UMC 17598