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Abstract

THe-Trap is a mass spectrometer that aims to determine the mass of ³H and ³He with a relative uncertainty of 10^-11. This will help to reduce the uncertainty of the Q-Value of the ³H and ³He β-decay by one order of magnitude, which is important for the KArlsruhe-TRItium-Neutrino experiment KATRIN. THe-Trap uses a double Penning trap system that can be loaded from an external ion source. It was developed and built at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 2008 it was moved to the Max- Planck-Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, where it is being set up and modified in a dedicated laboratory. The external ion source of the experiment is located in a distance of approximately 1 meter away from the Penning trap system. Since the external loading had not been thoroughly investigated yet, preliminary tests were carried out in the scope of this thesis. To this end the ion source was removed, modified and characterized in a separate set-up. The section responsible for the capture of the ions was duplicated and placed in a dedicated assembly. In addition to the investigation ion capture process, it was shown that the ions can be stored and ejected in pulses from this storage container. Furthermore, the field of the magnet that is used in THe-Trap was mapped, in order to align the capture section and the Penning traps for ion capture.