Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 23: Cold Molecules III

MO 23.3: Talk

Friday, March 16, 2012, 11:15–11:30, V38.03

Vibrational excitation of polar molecules trapped on a chip — •Silvio Marx, Mark Abel, Gabriele Santambrogio, and Gerard Meijer — Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195 Berlin, Germany

Over the last decade Stark decelerators have proven to be an important tool for the manipulation of external degrees of freedom of neutral polar molecules. In addition, the simultaneous manipulation of internal degrees of freedom like vibrational quantum states of neutral polar molecules is necessary to gain full control over molecular motion. Here, CO molecules are trapped over the surface of a microchip and then vibrationally excited using a narrow band infrared laser. Combined with time of flight measurements, excitation of trapped molecules allows the study of quantum-state-dependent trap strength. The ability to optically address trapped molecules shows the versatility of the chip decelerator approach. It is anticipated that future chip-based experiments, for example on chemical reactions, will greatly benefit from the ability to probe the product final state.