• Accepted Paper

Multihour stable trapping and threshold steady state of non-laser-coolable ions with ultracold atoms in a hybrid trap

Satyabrata Baidya and Sourav Dutta

Phys. Rev. A - Accepted 4 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3wbv-bjxd

Abstract

We report multi-hour stable trapping and steady state of non-laser-coolable Cs+ ions in a linear Paul trap, achieved via resonant charge-exchange (RCE) cooling with a precisely centered ultracold Cs cloud. Without cold atoms, all ions are lost within 3 minutes. With centered cold atoms, RCE cooling establishes a stable population of ions for 6 hours with no measurable decay – more than two orders of magnitude longer hold times compared to prior hybrid atom-ion systems. We observe a threshold behavior in the steady-state number of ions (Ns): initial ion loadings above Ns ions converge downward to Ns ions and remain constant thereafter; initial loadings below Ns ions show no measurable decay. The dynamics is governed by a competition between ion-ion rf heating and ion-atom collisional cooling. The prolonged, simultaneous ion-atom trapping suggests an upper bound on the three-body recombination-induced Cs2+ formation rate constant: k3 << 1.4 × 10^{-25} cm^6 s^{-1}. This realization of long-lived steady state overcomes a critical limitation of prior hybrid atom-ion systems and enables extended studies of ultracold ion-neutral chemistry, rare inelastic collisions, and sympathetic cooling routes for complex molecular ions.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation

If the author has provided any supplemental materials with this article they will be available upon publication of the version of record.

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation