An ion trap has been constructed that creates a potential well suitable for confining ions with the space charge of an electron cloud. The trap uses the concept of artificially structured boundaries, regions of overlapping electric and magnetic fields, to confine particles in a relatively field free volume. Measurements are presented from the build-up of ionized molecular hydrogen over time. Molecular hydrogen is introduced into the confinement volume by direct electron bombardment ionization of neutral background H2 leaked into the trap. Detailed analysis of the data is conducted using particle-in-cell simulations of trap operation and rate mechanics analysis. Pressure dependent estimates of ion lifetimes in the trap are on the order of milliseconds. Along with discussion of the trap a full introduction to the particle-in-cell technique is conducted through an original code implementation.

Magnetic plasma expulsion uses a magnetic field distortion to redirect incident charged particles around a certain area for the purposes of shielding. Computational studies are carried out and for certain values of magnetic field, magnetic plasma expulsion is found to effectively shield a sizable area. There are however many plasma behaviors and interactions that must be considered. Applications to a new cryogenic antimatter trap design are discussed.