Kingdon trap apparatus and technique for precise measurement of the lifetimes of metastable levels of ions

A portable system consisting of a Kingdon electrostatic ion trap and associated vacuum system and electronics has been especially designed to capture multiply charged ions from a beam produced by an electron cyclotron resonance ion source and to measure the lifetimes of the decays of metastable levels of these ions, which are excited in the source. Measurements on ion charge states as high as 14+ have been completed, with precisions exceeding 1% achieved with a few hours of data collection time in favorable cases. Gaseous and metallic ions of astrophysical interest have been studied. The measured lifetime of the 3s23p21D2 level of Mn11+, τ=11.16±0.10 ms, is discussed as an example of the apparatus capabilities. copyright 1998 American Institute of Physics