Abstract
Ion Coulomb crystals form when trapped ions are cooled below a certain critical temperature. In radiofrequency (RF) traps, such crystals are usually stationary (i.e. non-rotating) with shapes similar to those of cold, homogeneously charged liquids when the number of ions is sufficient for three-dimensional structures to appear. 'Dynamically stable' structures can, however, also be created either by directly applying a torque to an initially stationary crystal or by choosing trap parameters just within the stability region where stationary crystals will melt due to parametric resonances between the RF trap field and ion plasma modes.
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