Trapping and laser cooling of trace Ca super(+) isotopes injected from an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer

We report the trapping and laser cooling of Ca super(+) in a linear Paul trap connected to an ICP-MS as an ion source. The ICP-MS enables the stable and efficient loading of Ca super(+) into the trap from outside of the vacuum chamber. The trapped ions are laser-cooled and their laser induced fluorescence (LIF) is observed. The odd isotope super(43)Ca super(+) and the least abundant isotope super(46)Ca super(+) are trapped and laser-cooled successfully without the use of isotopically enriched samples.