This experiment examines the trapping of charged particles using oscillating electric fields, a technique that earned Wolfgang Paul and Hans Dehmelt the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1989. Although ion trapping is still at the cutting edge of modern science, the basic principles can be understood with little more than a good background in mechanics (with calculus) and beginning electromagnetism.

The EIT experiment includes three different ion traps, allowing a range of observations and measurements. Students load ions into the traps, observe their behavior over a range of conditions, make and observe Coulomb crystals, measure the charges and masses of individual trapped particles, measure picoNewton trapping forces, and more!