High-resolution collision energy control through ion position modulation in atom-ion hybrid systems
Abstract
We demonstrate an ion shuttling technique for high-resolution control of atom-ion collision energy by translating an ion held within a radio-frequency trap through a magneto-optical atom trap. The technique is demonstrated both experimentally and through numerical simulations, with the experimental results indicating control of ion kinetic energies from 0.05-1 K with a fractional resolution of 10 and the simulations demonstrating that kinetic energy control up to 120 K with a maximum predicted resolution of 100 is possible, offering order-of-magnitude improvements over most alternative techniques. Lastly, we perform a proof-of-principle chemistry experiment using this technique and outline how the method may be refined in the future and applied to the study of molecular ion chemistry.