Simultaneous electrostatic trapping of merged cation & anion beams

Simultaneous trapping of merged cation and anion beams in the hybrid electrostatic ion beam trap (HEIBT) opens new opportunities for the study of the interactions of isolated atomic molecular or cluster ions with oppositely charged ionic species. Application of the trapped merged beams requires a detailed understanding of the trapping dynamics and the effect of the Coulombic attractive and repulsive forces between the ions on their motion in the trap. The simultaneous trapping regime is explored experimentally for SF₆⁻ anion and SF₅⁺ cation beams and compared to realistic ion trajectory simulations. The respective stability of the simultaneously trapped cation and anion beams is experimentally tracked by nondestructive and mass sensitive image charge monitoring. An approximate analytical potential model is presented for modeling the dynamics of trapped ions, providing insight into the role of ion-ion interactions, and suggesting a simplified mirror design.