3D-Printable Model of a Particle Trap: Development and Use in the Physics Classroom

Abstract

Quadrupole ion traps are modern and versatile research tools used in mass spectrometers, in atomic frequency and time standards, in trapped ion quantum computing research, and for trapping anti-hydrogen ions at CERN. Despite their educational potential, quadrupole ion traps are seldom introduced into the physics classroom not least because commercial quadrupole ion traps appropriate for classroom use are expensive and difficult to set up. We present an open hardware 3D-printable quadrupole ion trap suitable for the classroom, which is capable of trapping lycopodium spores. We also provide student worksheets developed in an iterative design process, which can guide students while discovering particle traps. The quadrupole ion trap operates using a 3 kV 50 Hz alternating current power supply and uses an astable multivibrator circuit including high luminosity LEDs to illuminate the spores, using the stroboscopic effect to exhibit their movement. The trap can be used in teaching laboratories to enhance high school and university students' understanding of electric fields and their applications.

Open-hardware design and characterization of an electrostatic aerosol precipitator

“…4 ), the highest voltage is 10 kV, and the current is 0.4 mA (for the Entire Output Voltage Range specified in the online datasheet). For additional safety requirements, a similar limiting consideration is applied to the EP where the stored charge on the rod is also calculated for the highest voltage value of 10 kV similar to the study of McGinness et al (2019) [30] . The stored charge (Q in Coulombs) of the inside rod of the EP is Q = CxV where V is the voltage (in Volt) and C is the capacitance (in Farad).…”

Measurement of the charge-to-mass ratio of particles trapped by the Paul trap for education

“…Simple devices that can be fabricated include a trapping apparatus at Caltech [2], which employs metal ring electrodes. A device, including its electrodes, can be created using a three-dimensional (3D) printer, which is made available online by S'CoolLAB [3]. S'CoolLAB's trap can be assembled using commercially available parts or via modelling using a 3D printer; it can observed Coulomb crystals owing to its expansive trappable area and ability to confine multiple particles.…”

Low-cost and open-source super-resolution fluorescence microscope with autofocus for teaching and research

“…Recently, the open scientific hardware movement has sought to make scientific instrumentation more widely available and accessible in a similar way to the open software movement. The increasing availability and affordability of prototyping devices, such as threedimensional printers and microcontrollers (e.g., Arduino) have helped the open hardware movement turn expensive "black box" hardware into open-source, affordable, and robust instrumentation [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. This has begun to feed back into super-resolution microscopy and several researchers have described low-cost versions of super-resolution microscope designs [15][16][17].…”