Production of highly charged ions of rare species by laser-induced desorption inside an electron beam ion trap

This paper reports on the development and testing of a novel, highly efficient technique for the injection of very rare species into electron beam ion traps (EBITs) for the production of highly charged ions (HCI). It relies on in-trap laser-induced desorption of atoms from a sample brought very close to the electron beam resulting in a very high capture efficiency in the EBIT. We have demonstrated a steady production of HCI of the stable isotope 165Ho from samples of only 1012 atoms (∼300 pg) in charge states up to 45+. HCI of these species can be subsequently extracted for use in other experiments or stored in the trapping volume of the EBIT for spectroscopic measurements. The high efficie…