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Joined 2026-09-21 Message
Incoming links: Wolfgang Paul
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1989 2026-10-18
Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr. received one half for inventing the separated oscillatory fields method and applying it to the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks. Hans G. Dehmelt and Wolfgang Paul received one quarter each for developing ion trap techniques.[ref]
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1989 by Nobel Prize Outreach. Individual official 1989 summary: Ramsey one half, Dehmelt and Paul one quarter each; separated fields and clocks versus ion trapping.
Paul trap 2026-10-18
The Paul trap alternates focusing and defocusing electric forces. Their time average along a moving trajectory need not vanish, even when the electric field averages to zero at every fixed point. A spatial gradient makes the fast displacement correlate with the driving electric field; the RF-averaged trapping potential calculates the resulting restoring force.
Wolfgang Paul's lecture describes hyperbolic ring/endcap electrodes, loading by Electron-impact ionization of low-pressure gas, and resonant ejection through an endcap hole into an electron multiplier. Sweeping RF voltage produces an air mass spectrum.[ref]
Electromagnetic traps for charged and neutral particles by Wolfgang Paul. Paul, pp. 608–614, Figs. 6, 11; Columbia scan