ion trap

American  

noun

Physics.

1. any device used to prevent ions in an electron beam from striking other apparatus, especially in mass spectrometry.

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ion trap Scientific  

1. A device, such as a magnet, used to prevent ions in an electron beam from striking another apparatus, such as a cathode-ray tube screen, which could cause it to lose luminescence.

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Example Sentences

In an ion trap quantum simulator with 51 particles, the scientists have imitated a real material by recreating it particle by particle and studying it in a controlled laboratory environment.

From Science Daily • Nov. 29, 2023

The detector outside the ion trap will likely be a sheet of laser light, and the team will have to measure the ion’s interaction with the light sheet to nanosecond precision.

From Scientific American • Oct. 21, 2021

A pair of qubits in an ion trap would also experience this common motion, jiggling back and forth like two pendulum weights connected by a spring.

From Scientific American • Oct. 9, 2012

The record holders, a group in Innsbruck, use a device called an ion trap in which each qubit exists as a superposition of a rubidium atom at different energies.

From Economist • Feb. 23, 2012

Paul, 76, won fame for fashioning a vastly improved ion trap.

From Time Magazine Archive