Crystalline ion beams have been created by scientists at the Ludwig-Maximilians
University (LMU) in Munich. Even as beams of positively charged ions
zip around an accelerator at high longitudinal speeds, they can be "cooled"
in the transverse direction through the mediation of electrons or laser
light. This allows the beam to become denser.
The LMU scientists went about their business in the following way:
first they cooled the ions, using two laser beams, and then accelerated
the ion-crystal with the same lasers. The Mg ion crystal moves through
the PALLAS storage ring at 2800 m/sec (equivalent to a beam energy of
1 eV) around a track with a diameter of about 12 cm. The crystal can
survive for up to about 3000 circuits. (Schatz et al., Nature,
16 August 2001.)
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