Loading of mass spectrometry ion trap with Th ions by laser ablation for nuclear frequency standard application

We describe an original multisectional quadrupole ion trap aimed to realize nuclear frequency standard based on the unique isomer transition in thorium nucleus. It is shown that the system effectively operates on Th+, Th2+ and Th3+ ions produced by laser ablation of metallic thorium-232 target. Lase...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	European journal of mass spectrometry (Chichester, England) Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 146 - 151
Main Authors:	Borisyuk, Petr V, Derevyashkin, Sergey P, Khabarova, Ksenia Y, Kolachevsky, Nikolay N, Lebedinsky, Yury Y, Poteshin, Sergey S, Sysoev, Alexey A, Tkalya, Evgeny V, Tregubov, Dmitry O, Troyan, Viktor I, Vasiliev, Oleg S, Yakovlev, Valery P, Yudin, Valery I
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London, England SAGE Publications 01-08-2017
Subjects:	nuclear transition nuclear spectroscopy thorium optical clocks Frequency standards ion trap optical spectroscopy mass spectrometry
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	We describe an original multisectional quadrupole ion trap aimed to realize nuclear frequency standard based on the unique isomer transition in thorium nucleus. It is shown that the system effectively operates on Th+, Th2+ and Th3+ ions produced by laser ablation of metallic thorium-232 target. Laser intensity used for ablation is about 6 GW/cm2. Via applying a bias potential to every control voltage including the RF one, we are able not only to manipulate ions within the energy range as wide as 1–500 eV but to specially adjust trap potentials in order to work mainly with ions that belong to energy distribution maximum and therefore to effectively enhance the number of trapped ions. Measurement of energy distributions of 232Th+, 232Th2+, 232Th3+ ions obtained by laser ablation allows us to define optimal potential values for trapping process. Observed number of ions inside trap in dependence on trapping time is found to obey an unusually slow – logarithmic decay law that needs more careful study.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1469-0667 1751-6838
DOI:	10.1177/1469066717720906