RESUMO
We present time-of-flight measurements of the longitudinal energy spread of pulsed ultracold ion beams, produced by near-threshold ionization of rubidium atoms captured in a magneto-optical atom trap. Well-defined pulsed beams have been produced with energies of only 1 eV and a root-mean-square energy spread as low as 0.02 eV, 2 orders of magnitude lower than the state-of-the-art gallium liquid-metal ion source. The low energy spread is important for focused ion beam technology because it enables milling and ion-beam-induced deposition at sub-nm length scales with many ionic species, both light and heavy. In addition, we show that the slowly moving, low-energy-spread ion bunches are ideal for studying intricate space charge effects in pulsed beams. As an example, we present a detailed study of the transition from space charge dominated dynamics to ballistic motion.
RESUMO
We propose a technique for producing electron bunches that has the potential for advancing the state-of-the-art in brightness of pulsed electron sources by orders of magnitude. In addition, this method leads to femtosecond bunch lengths without the use of ultrafast lasers or magnetic compression. The electron source we propose is an ultracold plasma with electron temperatures down to 10 K, which can be fashioned from a cloud of laser-cooled atoms by photoionization just above threshold. Here we present results of simulations in a realistic setting, showing that an ultracold plasma has an enormous potential as a bright electron source.
