Single ion trapping in a buffer gas and liquid xenon energy resolution studies for the EXO experiment

Recent neutrino oscillation results provide experimental proof that neutrinos are massive particles. These measurements, however, reveal information about neutrino mass differences, as opposed to the absolute mass values themselves. Observation of a rare nuclear transition called neutrinoless double beta decay (0nubetabeta) would constitute an absolute neutrino mass measurement. This decay requires that neutrinos are massive Majorana particles, and that lepton number conservation is violated. Observation of this decay will undoubtedly reveal physics beyond the current Standard Model of particle physics. Current limits on the half-life of 0nubetabeta are > 1025 yr, providing a formidable experimental challenge. The Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) is a double beta decay experiment poised to improve upon this limit, using 136Xe as both a source and detector of this decay. 0nubetabeta of 136Xe produces a detectable energy deposition, in addition to a single 136Ba ++ decay daughter which can be used to tag this rare process. This thesis deals with the details of energy deposition in liquid xenon, as well as the first observation of single Ba ions in a high pressure buffer-gas filled RF Paul trap.