Date of Award

2013

Publication Type

Doctoral Thesis

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Physics

Keywords

Pure sciences, Charged particle optics, Electrostatic, Stability, Storage rings

Supervisor

Reddish, Timothy J.

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

A low energy (~50 eV) electrostatic storage ring has been constructed that can store a recirculating bunch of either electrons or ions. The charged particle bunch 'orbits' within an apparatus consisting of four lenses and two hemispherical deflector analysers, arranged in a 'race-track' configuration of length 64.1 cm. A theoretical study, using transfer matrices from charged particle optics for a 'symmetric' configuration of lens potentials, has been previously completed by Hammond et al. [New J. Phys. 11 (2009) 043033]. That approach was capable of predicting modes of storage which appeared as a resonant-like pattern. An 'asymmetric' configuration, new in this work and extending the previous study to apply to a more general case, has been completed and will be presented alongside experimental results. The level of agreement between the theoretical and experimental results is found to be excellent, and the robustness of the matrix formalism has eliminated the need to rely on computer simulation to achieve storage. This asymmetric arrangement of the lenses allows for greater flexibility in the operation of the ring, creating the potential for a more diverse range of applications and potentially aid in the design of future rings. Several spectra for both electrons and positive ions are presented to provide an indication as to how the charged particle bunch evolves as more orbits are completed. The number of counts inevitably decreases as a function of orbit number due to loss mechanisms. Enhanced measurement techniques, as well as the matrix theory, have made storage of the bunch for over a hundred orbits routine, corresponding to over 65 m travelled, and this is observed directly from the spectra. The application of the storage ring as a multi-pass time-of-flight mass spectrometer has been studied. The isotopes of krypton and xenon have been made to completely separate from one another out of a single pulse of ions. This is observed to occur after ~15 orbits of the ring, roughly 10 m of distance. Initial results have indicated that the mass resolution is approximately 5000. Limitations and potential improvements to the mass resolution are presented.

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