Studies of laser cooled trapped ions

Four areas in the arena of laser cooled ion trapping have been studied. The driving of individual motional resonances of ions in traps reveals information regarding the efficacy of laser cooling on that motion. Using the phase response to the driving of trapped magnesium and beryllium ions, the damping rate of each motion imposed by the laser cooling is calculated. Both combined traps and linear traps have received much attention over the last few years. We demonstrate the linear combined trap--the conjunction of these two technologies. We illustrate this by calculating and measuring some of the motional properties of this new ion trap. Molecular ions cannot be directly laser cooled because of their complicated energy level structure and decay pathways. Instead, we demonstrate the sympathetic cooling of HCO+, NH+ and N2H+ by laser cooled magnesium ions. The species trapped can be characterized by the response of the system to driving the motional frequencies with a small potential applied to the trap. Cavity quantum electrodynamics does not traditionally have its roots in the field of ion trapping, although examples of experiments with atomic beams traversing cavities can easily be found. We, however, outline progress towards an experiment to see cavity quantum electrodynamic effects with precisely one ion, stationary in the cavity waist. (author)