Hannover 2003 – scientific programme

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MO: Molekülphysik

MO 12: Poster II

MO 12.19: Poster

Thursday, March 27, 2003, 16:00–18:30, Lichthof

Preparation and Storage of Ultracold Complex Molecules — •Bernhard Roth, Alexander Ostendorf, Claus Lämmerzahl, and Stephan Schiller — Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf

We investigate methods for trapping and cooling of complex molecular ions (i.e. large ions with masses up to 30000 amu).

The transfer of the complex molecular ions from solution into the gas phase is achieved by the electrospray ionization (ESI) method. The ions produced are mass-filtered and transferred by an octopole ion guide into the ultrahigh vacuum experimentation chamber. There the complex molecular ions are stored in a linear Paul trap together with laser cooled ¹³⁷Ba⁺-ions. Because of Coulomb interaction between the two ion species the translational motion of the complex molecular ions will be sympathetically cooled.

The goal of the experiment is to achieve an ion crystal of Ba⁺ in which the molecular ions are embedded; thus the translationally cold and spatially located molecules can be studied at rest, e.g. by spectroscopic means. We report on the current status of the project, the experimental setup, and numerical simulations of the cooling process.