Particle physics: Crystalline ion beams

By cooling an ion beam until interparticle motion is virtually eliminated it should be possible to create crystalline ion beams in a particle accelerator — rather like threading pearls on a string. This can't be done in the current generation of high-energy ion storage rings, but using the table-top circular RF-quadrupole storage ring PALLAS, Sch�tz et al. have created crystalline ion beams of unprecedented brilliance that survive over 3,000 revolutions of the ring without cooling. If this technique can be adapted to the larger high-energy rings, new areas of ion beam physics will be opened up for research.

Crystalline ion beams
T. SCH�TZ, U. SCHRAMM & D. HABS
Nature 412, 717-720 (16 August 2001)
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16 August 2001 table of contents