Note: Measuring capacitance and inductance of a helical resonator and improving its quality factor by mutual inductance alteration Available to Purchase

Narrow bandwidth and high voltage radio frequency (RF) is an essential requirement for stable confinement of ions within a RF trap and helical resonators are commonly used for that purpose. Effective capacitance and inductance of a helical resonator are estimated by measuring resonant frequencies for different external loads. Load capacitance of an ion trap can be estimated from this method and a resonator can be constructed for desired resonant frequency. We demonstrate a very simple method to achieve higher Q-factor of a resonator by optimizing mutual separation between the primary antenna and helical coil. We also formulate a set of analytical equations for calculating overall inductance, resistance, and Q-factor of a loaded helical resonator.