Theory and simulation of ion Coulomb crystal formation in a Penning trap

During my masters, I undertook some theoretical research (with friend Martin Asprusten and supervised by Professor Richard C. Thompson) into ion traps and the Coulomb crystals that form in them when ions are laser-cooled. We produced a C++ simulation environment (the code for which can be found here) which ended up with some interesting results.

I’ve been very fortunate in having the results deemed interesting enough to be published in Applied Physics B as part of a special edition of the journal published for the 100th birthday of Wolfgang Paul, a German physicist whose research was instrumental in the creation of the modern ion trap.

You can read the full article at SpringerLink if you have a subscription or attached to a University network with library access.