München 2004 – scientific programme

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MO: Molekülphysik

MO 17: Poster II

MO 17.2: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2004, 14:00–16:00, Schellingstr. 3

Sympathetic Cooling of Complex Molecules in a Linear Paul Trap — •Hartmut Borawski, Alexander Ostendorf, Bernhard Roth, and Stephan Schiller — Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf

Ultracold molecules promise new perspectives in the field of molecular physics and high resolution spectroscopy.

The goal of our experiment is to apply the method of sympathetic cooling in a linear Paul trap for complex molecules (with masses up to 30.000 amu): laser cooled Ba⁺ is stored together with the molecules to reduce the kinetic energy of the molecules by Coulomb interaction. If laser cooling is strong enough the trapped Ba⁺ forms an ion crystal in which the complex molecules can be embedded. The spatially located molecules can be investigated at rest, e.g. by using spectroscopic techniques.

We present recent results on the transfer of complex molecules from a commercial ESI source into the linear Paul trap. Further we report on the progress in laser-cooling of Ba⁺ and in the imaging of large ion crystals using an ICCD camera.