  We investigate the generation of squeezing and entanglement for the motional
degrees of freedom of ions in linear traps, confined by time-varying and
oscillating potentials, comprised of an DC and an AC component. We show that
high degrees of squeezing and entanglement can be obtained by controlling
either the DC or the AC trapping component (or both), and by exploiting
transient dynamics in regions where the ions' motion is unstable, without any
added optical control. Furthermore, we investigate the time-scales over which
the potentials should be switched in order for the manipulations to be most
effective.
