Cold Reactive Collisions between laser-cooled ions and velocity-selected neutral molecules.
We report a new experimental method to study reactive ion-molecule collisions at very low temperatures. A source of laser-cooled ions in a linear Paul trap has been combined with a quadrupole-guide velocity selector to investigate the reaction of Ca+ with CH3F at collision energies E[over](coll)/k(B)> or =1 K with single-particle sensitivity. The technique represents a general approach to study reactive collisions between ions and polar molecules over a wide temperature range down to the cold regime.
Willitsch
Stefan
S
Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Chemistry Research Laboratory, Oxford OX1 3TA, United Kingdom. stefan.willitsch@chem.ox.ac.uk
Bell
Martin T
MT
Gingell
Alexander D
AD
Procter
Simon R
SR
Softley
Timothy P
TP