Crystalline beam emulations in a pulse-excited linear Paul trap

This paper considers a pulsed voltage excitation of the quadrupole electrodes of a linear Paul ion trap. The transverse dynamics of ions in this time-varying electric field is analogous to that of charged particles in the strong focusing magnetic lattice of a storage ring. By laser cooling ions stored in a pulse-excited linear Paul trap theoretical results on the stability of crystalline ion beams in storage rings can be tested. The stability of ion motion in a pulse-excited trap is derived in (q,a)-parameter formalism and we show where in (q,a) space to expect the formation of Coulomb crystals according to the theory of crystalline ion beams.