Abstract
A novel technique for a direct and coherent measurement of the modified cyclotron frequency of an ion in a Penning trap at energies close to the thermal cooling limit is presented. This allows a rapid and both precise and accurate determination of the free-space cyclotron frequency in real Penning traps despite the existence of electric and magnetic field imperfections and relativistic shifts. The demonstrated performance paves the way for considerably improved bound-state -factor measurements on the 10 ppt level and mass measurements in the 1 ppt range and possibly below.
- Received 26 January 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.143003
© 2011 American Physical Society