Cold, dense, atomic ion clouds produced by cryogenic buffer-gas cooling

We produce cold and dense clouds of atomic ions (Ca+, Dy+) by laser ablation of metal targets and cryogenic buffer-gas cooling of the resulting plasma. We measure the temperature and density of the ion clouds using laser absorption spectroscopy. We find that large ion densities (greater than or similar to 10(9) cm(-3)) can be obtained at temperatures as low as 6 K. Our method opens up new ways to study cold neutral plasmas, and to perform survey spectroscopy of ions that cannot be laser cooled easily.