Improved temperature regulation of Penning trap mass spectrometers

Abstract

With relative uncertainties better than δ m / m = 1 0 − 9 for mass measurements with Penning traps the temperature variation of the trap and surrounding materials must be kept within a few mK because temperature changes are known to shift the ion cyclotron frequency. In this paper we report a new temperature stabilization system recently installed at SMILETRAP II which regulates the flow of pressurized air that circulates around the trap enclosure. This system manages to keep the temperature fixed at the set point with a standard deviation of only 2.5 mK.