HITRAP Facility and Experiments - Status and Future Perspectives

The accuracy of quantum electrodynamics tests in strong fields has been tested up to now by measuring transition energies in highly-charged ions, using accelerator facilities and ion sources (see, e.g., [1] and Refs. there in). New applications like atomic mass measurements with 10-11 relative accuracy, performed using advanced ion traps, require the evaluation of total binding energy...

We present a fully open source hardware solution for the next generation of diode lasers for highly charged ion experiments. Our solution, consisting of a laser driver, a temperature controller and a fast servo, provides superior performance in comparison to typical commercial solutions in the field while being more economical and versatile due to its open source platform.

Our laser current...

Highly charged ions (HCI) have many favorable properties. They offer a high sensitivity to test fundamental physics and for the search of new physics, a simplified atomic structure due to a small number of bound electrons, and a low susceptibility to external perturbing fields [1]. Therefore, HCI are also well-suited for next-generation optical atomic clocks, which can in principle operate at...