Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Sympathetic Crystallization of Molecular Ions

Abstract

It is shown that the translational degrees of freedom of a large variety of molecules, from light diatomic to heavy organic ones, can be cooled sympathetically and brought to rest (crystallized) in a linear Paul trap. The method relies on endowing the molecules with an appropriate positive charge, storage in a linear radiofrequency trap, and sympathetic cooling. Two well--known atomic coolant species, ${}^9{Be}^{+}$ and ${}^{137}{Ba}^{+}$, are sufficient for cooling the molecular mass range from 2 to 20,000 amu. The large molecular charge required for simultaneous trapping of heavy molecules and of the coolant ions can easily be produced using electrospray ionization. Crystallized molecular ions offer vast opportunities for novel studies.

Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

References in corpus (2)

• High-resolution Doppler-free molecular spectroscopy with a continuous-wave optical parametric oscillator
• Instability Heating of Sympathetically-Cooled Ions in a Linear Paul Trap

Cited by in corpus (21)

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• Tests of Lorentz invariance using hydrogen molecules
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• Rotational cooling of heteronuclear molecular ions with ^1-Sigma, ^2-Sigma, ^3-Sigma and ^2-Pi electronic ground states
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• Cooling antihydrogen ions for the free-fall experiment GBAR
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• (py)LIon: a package for simulating trapped ion trajectories
• Ellipsoidal Coulomb Crystals in a Linear Radiofrequency Trap
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• Static Dipole Polarizability for the $1S\sigma$ electronic state of the $H_2^{+}$ molecular ion
• Deterministic delivery of externally cold and precisely positioned single molecular ions