Efficient transport of cold atoms or ions is a subject of increasing concern
in many experimental applications reaching from quantum information processing
to frequency metrology. For the scalable quantum computer architectures based
on the shuttling of individual ions, different transport schemes have been
developed, which allow to move single atoms minimizing their energy gain. In
this article we discuss the experimental implementation of the transport of a
three-dimensional ion cloud in a macroscopic linear radiofrequency (RF) trap.
The present work is based on numerical simulations done by molecular dynamics
taking into account a realistic experimental environment. The deformation of
the trapping potential and the spatial extension of the cloud during transport
appears to be the major source of the ion energy gain. The efficiency of
transport in terms of transfer probability and ion number is also discussed