Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 6: Ultrakalte Moleküle (mit MO)

Q 6.3: Talk

Monday, March 2, 2009, 11:15–11:30, VMP 8 HS

Preparation of HD⁺-Ions in the Ro-vibrational Ground State — •Tobias Schneider, Bernhard Roth, Hannes Duncker, Michael Hansen, Sergey Vasilyev, Ingo Ernsting, and Stephan Schiller — Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstr.1, 40225 Düsseldorf

Being the most simple heteronuclear molecule, the HD⁺ molecular ion is an ideal model system for testing the predictions of ab-initio theoretical molecular structure calculations using high precision laser spectroscopy. Two interesting perspectives are improved tests of QED effects in molecules and an alternative determination of the electron to proton mass ration m_e/m_p.

One important prerequisite for high precision spectroscopic measurements is the ability to control the translational as well as internal degrees of freedom of the molecules. For molecular ions stored in an ion trap the motion of the molecules can be cooled via sympathetic cooling with laser cooled atomic ions. Cooling of the internal degrees of freedom is more difficult since the sympathetic cooling does not affect the internal degrees of freedom and in non-cryogenic environments interaction with black body radiation will distribute the molecular population over several ro-vibrational states.

For HD⁺ we developed an optical pumping scheme that allows to prepare most of the molecular ions in the ro-vibrational ground state. We present first experimental results.