The stability diagram of the digital ion trap

The Paul trap with a rectangular driving field, known as digital ion trap (DIT) has been investigated by mapping the stability diagram, i.e., measuring the relative storage efficiency with respect to the trapping parameters, and comparison to the conventional Paul trap with harmonic guiding field. The results show that the performance of the DIT can be described in terms of the conventional trap, when the trapping parameters are redefined according to the zeroth and first order Fourier component of the driving field. The higher harmonics seem to have only little influence.

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► Stability diagrams of digital ion traps with different duty cycles are measured.
► The results are compared to the stability diagram of a harmonic Paul trap.
► A new mathematical description for the DIT based on Fourier analysis is presented.
► The new approach leads to identical a–q stability diagrams for all DITs.
► With this model all DITs can be described consistently.