Laboratory Study of Interstellar Ion-Polar Molecule Reactions (Prof. Kunihiro Okada)
- Date: Aug 8, 2018
- Time: 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Prof. Dr. Kunihiro Okada
- Department of Materials and Life Sciences, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan
- Location: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik
- Room: New Lecture Hall, Room B 0.32
- Host: hosted by: Theodor W. Hänsch
A new experimental method combining a sympathetic laser-cooling technique for generating cold molecular ions with a Stark velocity filter for producing cold polar molecules has the potential ability to achieve a systematic study of cold ion-polar molecule reactions over the environmental temperatures in molecular clouds (10-100 K). In this context, we performed reaction-rate measurements between sympathetically cooled ions and velocity-selected polar molecules at low temperatures. Recently we developed a wavy Stark velocity filter which can widely change the translational and rotational temperatures of velocity-selected polar molecules without changing the output beam position. Combining a cryogenic linear Paul trap for rotational cooling of molecular ions with the wavy Stark velocity filter will enable us to systematically study interstellar ion-polar molecule reactions over a wide range of reaction temperatures.