Dynamics of guiding highly charged ions through SiO 2 nanocapillaries

Time evolution of angular distributions of transmitted ions through SiO2 nanocapillaries wasmeasured under defined initial conditions: already charged, as well as fully dischargedcapillaries. We find distinct charge patterns and describe them quantitatively with the help of amodel calculation. This results in a pattern of a few number of charge patches, guiding ions inthe stationary state of transmission. For the already charged capillary membrane, we show a“memory effect” in the form of a double peak structure in the transmitted angulardistributions. The time evolution of these structures reflects charge relaxation andrearrangement of the charge patches. The re-arrangement of the charge patches is much fasterthan the discharge, suggesting that the charge relaxation inside the capillaries can be drivenby the incident charges, such as a Frenkel-Poole process.