Design, development and testing of a helical resonator for trapping Sr+ ions for frequency standards and sensing applications

A stable, high voltage, high quality factor and low noise helical resonator for trapping strontium ions in frequency standards and sensing applications is designed, prototyped and measured. For this purpose, in this article we use both analytical and numerical methods to obtain the optimal physical dimensions of the resonator following classical radio frequency filter models. By means of a mathematical description of helical coil resonators we obtain an equivalent electrical circuit model for the set formed by the source, resonator and ion trap. The resonator was built using the dimensions obtained with this model and its main parameters such as resonance frequency and reflection coefficient were measured. This article also describes the fabrication process of the device, which was developed to carry out the experimental trials. These measurements were compared with those obtained through the theoretical approximations and with a simulation obtained with computational electromagnetic software. The results show a higher degree of accuracy with the measured prototype in the simulation with the computational software than with the analytical equations.