Electrostatic cage "Stark barrel'' for rapidly switching a uniform electric field through arbitrary angles

A cylindrical arrangement of electrodes, together with control electronics, is described that provides uniform electric fields over cm(3) volumes in a vacuum, whose angle and magnitude can be switched on a mu s time scale. Fu ll 360 degrees field rotation is achieved, and the device allows access for particle or light beams from all sides. Both numerical and analytic descri ptions of the general fields are given. Extension to full three-dimensional field control and other variations are described. The device, which was or iginally designed for crossed-beam collision experiments with keV energy io ns and laser-excited Rydberg atoms in field-directed Stark states or cohere nt-elliptic states, may be more generally useful in atom trapping and cold collisions or in materials and surface science. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(98)02312-0].