Mainz 2017 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 37: Ultracold atoms and BEC - VI (with Q)
A 37.1: Invited Talk
Friday, March 10, 2017, 14:30–15:00, N 1
Sympathetic cooling of OH- by means of a heavy buffer gas — •Henry Lopez1, Bastian Höltkemeier1, Jonas Tauch1, Tobias Heldt1, Eric Endres2, Roland Wester2, and Matthias Weidemüller1 — 1INF 226, 69120 Heidelberg — 2Technikerstraße 25/3, 6020, Innsbruck
Sympathetic cooling is a versatile tool that is used when other standard cooling methods like laser cooling are not applicable. In the last few years there has been a big debate about its limitations under certain circumstances: is it possible to cool down trapped ions in a system where the coolant is heavier than the cooled particle? By using a spatially confined buffer gas * e.g. a magneto optical trap - for atoms and a high-order radio frequency trap for ions, we have theoretically shown that sympathetic cooling of ions in such hybrid systems becomes feasible. In order to proof this experimentally we are developing a novel hybrid atom-ion trap. As buffer gas we use an ultracold cloud of Rb atoms confined in a dark spontaneous-force optical trap loaded from a 2D-MOT. The ions, in particular OH-, are stored in an 8-pole rf trap made of thin wires, guaranteeing optical access into the trapping region. For probing the temperature of the ions we apply electron-photodetachment tomography of the negative ions. In this talk I report on the latest experimental results, the status of our experiment, its limitations and possible applications.