Ultracold high precision ion sources

该研究项目旨在实现基于磁光阱中超冷原子光电离的高精度离子源。这种离子源得益于极小的横向能量扩散。目前，离子光学的性能受到离子间随机库仑相互作用和离子光学的球差的限制。此外，目前报道的设计不允许源的确定性操作，即对产生的离子数量的精确控制。这对于未来半导体掺杂的应用具有特别重要的意义。在合适的电离过程和检测方案的帮助下，现有的方法将得到扩展，以克服这些限制。这是通过在密集的原子气体中所谓的里德堡封锁和离子光学在离子产生的瞬间的电场的实验触发来实现的。通过这种方法，可以影响束流中离子的时间序列，减小随机库仑相互作用。此外，单个离子轨迹也可以被操纵。最后，电离事件的检测也允许源的确定性操作。有了高精度的确定性离子源，离子干涉测量等基础研究的新实验以及固体和表面的新光谱和微观研究成为可能。

The research project aims at the realization and characterization of high precision ion sources on the basis of photoionization of ultracold atoms in a magneto-optical trap. Such ion sources benefit from an extremely small transversal energy spread. Currently, the performance is limited by stochastic Coulomb interaction between the ions and spherical aberrations of the ion optics. Moreover, the currently reported designs do not allow for the deterministic operation of the source, i. e. the exact control over the number of created ions. This is of special importance for possible future applications in semiconductor doping.With help of suitable ionization processes and detection schemes, the existing methodology will be extended to overcome these limitations. This achieved by means of the so called Rydberg blockade in dense atomic gases and the experimental trigger of the electric fields of the ion optics on the moment of creation of the ion. In this way, the temporal sequence of the ions in the beam can be influenced and the stochastic Coulomb-interaction can be reduced. Moreover, the individual ion trajectory can be manipulated as well. Eventually, the detection of the ionization event also allows for the deterministic operation of the source.Having a high precision deterministic ion source at hand, new experiments in fundamental research such as ion interferometry as well as new spectroscopic and microscopic studies of solids and surfaces become possible.