Motion of a Single Particle in a Real Penning Trap

Deviations from the idealised situation described in Chap. 6 as they are present in real Penning traps give rise to a number of effects. Some of these can be minimized by efforts to approach the ideal situation as closely as possible. Others are inherent to the situation and cannot be avoided or circumvented, and we will discuss them below. In particular in precision measurements, a number of imperfections may be of relevance. The most prominent imperfections in experimental setups are non-ideal electric and magnetic fields, misalignments of the trap axis with respect to the axis of the magnetic field and mechanical imperfections of trap electrodes. Such imperfections can in principle be avoided by appropriate choice of experimental parameters, in reality however, they are present and need to be taken into account in the analysis of the data. Let us have a look at the effects and their magnitudes.