Sympathetic cooling of fullerene ions by laser-cooled Mg+ ions in a linear rf trap Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • A large sample (N 104) of fullerene ions (m=720 a.u) is cooled by means of a much smaller number (100) of laser-cooled magnesium ions (m=24 a.u). The results demonstrate that sympathetic cooling of large molecules to low temperatures is feasible. The temperature of the Mg+24 ions in the mixed Mg+ - C60 + ion cloud stored in an rf trap is found to be TMg =5 K from their fluorescence signal. Molecular dynamics simulations are used to obtain the corresponding equilibrium temperature of the fullerene ions, and show that T C60 =14 K. 2006 The American Physical Society.

published proceedings

  • PHYSICAL REVIEW A

author list (cited authors)

  • Ryjkov, V. L., Zhao, X., & Schuessler, H. A.

citation count

  • 16

publication date

  • August 2006