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Deceleration and electrostatic trapping of OH radicals

Sebastiaan Y. T. van de Meerakker, Paul H. M. Smeets, Nicolas Vanhaecke, Rienk T. Jongma, Gerard Meijer

physics.atom-pharXiv:physics/0407116

Abstract

A pulsed beam of ground state OH radicals is slowed down using a Stark decelerator and is subsequently loaded into an electrostatic trap. Characterization of the molecular beam production, deceleration and trap loading process is performed via laser induced fluorescence detection inside the quadrupole trap. Depending on details of the trap loading sequence, typically 105 OH (X2Π3/2, J=3/2) radicals are trapped at a density of around 107 cm-3 and at temperatures in the 50-500 mK range. The 1/e trap lifetime is around 1.0 second.

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