Field induced electron-ion recombination, a novel route towards neutral (anti-) matter

Summary form only given. A breakthrough, paving the way to serious research into the properties of neutral antimatter, would be the wall-free confinement of cold antihydrogen atoms. To produce such cold antihydrogen atoms and catch them before they annihilate with matter is the primary goal of the ATRAP (antihydrogen trap) collaboration. Once trapped, cold antihydrogen atoms can be used for experiments such as tests of CPT invariance or gravity measurements. Here we present a new recombination scheme using pulsed electric fields as slow as 1 ns.