OVERVIEW OF THE ELECTRON-BEAM ION-TRAP PROGRAM AT NIST

This paper surveys the ongoing physics experiments at the Electron Bea m Ion Trap (EBIT) facility at NIST, with particular attention paid to the underlying physical principles involved. In addition, some new dat a on the performance of our EBIT are presented, including results rela ted to the determination of the trap width, ion temperature, and numbe r of highly charged ions in the trap.