Ion Chain

The ions as a camera on the trap sees them, glowing in the cooling light, each smeared over its own motion (exaggerated): a kicked ion shakes its neighbours, since the chain rings only as a whole. The gold bars are the electrodes, when they are close enough to show; the violet line is the laser pulse. Weaken the radial pull (the mod wheel) and the line buckles into a zigzag.

Each mode's shape, swinging slowly at its own rate, lowest first: the centre of mass at ×1, the breathing mode at ×√3 = 1.732, then the rest of the modes along the axis (violet), and the radial modes (blue) just under the radial frequency. The bar is how loud it sounds now: the pulse's push on it times what the electrodes hear of it.

Not a harmonic series: 1, 1.732, 2.41, 3.05 … times the note, so a chord of ion chains rings like bells. Held, the lines the electrodes hear best fade first (they lose energy to its resistor); let go, the cooling laser stops them all.