Phase-space manipulation of stored ions using the<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>δ</mml:mi></mml:math>-kick method

Abstract

We demonstrate compression of the velocity spread of a stored ion bunch in an electrostatic ion-beam trap, using the $\ensuremath{\delta}$-kick method. An analytical formula for the optimum pulse is derived and is used in the laboratory. A 20% reduction in the asymptotic velocity spread is observed after application of a single cooling pulse to a bunch of 4.2-keV ${\mathrm{Ar}}^{+}$ ions.