Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme
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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik
MO 29: Poster: Cold Molecules
MO 29.10: Poster
Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 16:30–18:30, Poster A
Experiments with decelerated and trapped OH radicals — •Joop Gilijamse1, Steven Hoekstra1, Nicolas Vanhaecke2, Ludwig Scharfenberg1, Sebastiaan van de Meerakker1, and Gerard Meijer1 — 1Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Geselllschaft, Berlin, Germany — 2Laberatoire Aime Cotton, CNRS II, Campus d'Orsay, France
With a Stark decelerator, bunches of state-selected molecules with a controlled velocity and with longitudinal temperatures as low as a few mK can be produced. We will report on the deceleration and electrostatic trapping of ground state OH and OD radicals. The trap loading has been optimized using evolutionary strategies, and using a new trap geometry. The radicals are trapped at a density of 107 * 108 cm-3 and at a temperature in the 50-500 mK range. The blackbody radiation limited trap lifetime is measured to be 1.9 s and 3.7 for the OH and OD radical, respectively. Recent experimental results illustrate two unique features of our experimental method: the long interaction time afforded by the trap and the high energy resolution of the velocity-tunable molecular beam.