Laboratory Study of Interstellar Ion-Polar Molecule Reactions (Prof. Kunihiro Okada)

Datum: 08.08.2018
Uhrzeit: 14:00 - 15:30
Vortragende(r): Prof. Dr. Kunihiro Okada
Department of Materials and Life Sciences, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan
Ort: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik
Raum: New Lecture Hall, Room B 0.32
Gastgeber: hosted by: Theodor W. Hänsch

Ion-molecule reactions play important roles in the production processes of interstellar molecules in molecular clouds. In this seminar, I will present the recent experimental data on the translational and rotational temperature dependence of the reaction-rate constant in the CH3CN-Ne+ reaction system.

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.