Charging and discharging of nano-capillaries during ion-guiding of multiply charged projectiles

Slow multiply charged ions are efficiently guided through nano-capillaries with large aspect ratio in polyethylene terephthalate (PET), due to self-organized charging of the inner capillary walls which prevents close collisions with the surface. In order to gain more insight into this interesting phenomenon we have measured the 2-D scattering distribution of transmitted ions during the charge-up process.