KINGDON TRAP APPARATUS AND TECHNIQUE FOR PRECISE MEASUREMENT OF THE LIFETIMES OF METASTABLE LEVELS OF IONS

A portable system consisting of a Kingdon electrostatic ion trap and a ssociated vacuum system and electronics has been especially designed t o capture multiply charged ions from a beam produced by an electron cy clotron resonance ion source and to measure the lifetimes of the decay s of metastable levels of these ions, which are excited in the source. Measurements on ion charge states as high as 14+ have been completed, with precisions exceeding 1% achieved with a few hours of data collec tion time in favorable cases. Gaseous and metallic ions of astrophysic al interest have been studied. The measured lifetime of the 3s(2)3p(2) D-1(2) level of Mn11+, tau=11.16+/-0.10 ms, is discussed as an exampl e of the apparatus capabilities. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physic s.