Cold reactive collisions between laser-cooled ions and velocity-selected neutral molecules

We report a new experimental method to study reactive ion-molecule collisions at very low temperatures. A source of laser-cooled ions in a linear Paul trap has been combined with a quadrapole-guide velocity selector to investigate the reaction of Ca+ with CH3F at collision energies Ē_coll/ k_B ≥ 1 K...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Willitsch, S, Bell, M, Gingell, A, Procter, S, Softley, T
Format: Journal article
Langue:English
Publié: American Physical Society 2008
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Résumé:We report a new experimental method to study reactive ion-molecule collisions at very low temperatures. A source of laser-cooled ions in a linear Paul trap has been combined with a quadrapole-guide velocity selector to investigate the reaction of Ca+ with CH3F at collision energies Ē_coll/ k_B ≥ 1 K with single-particle sensitivity. The technique represents a general approach to study reactive collisions between ions and polar molecules over a wide temperature range down to the cold regime.