We report on the production of cold, state-selected
H2+ molecular ions in a linear rf trap. The ions are produced by (
3+1) resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) of
H2, and sympathetically cooled by laser-cooled
Be+ ions. After demonstrating and characterizing the REMPI process, we use photodissociation by a deep UV laser at 213 nm to verify the high vibrational purity of the produced
H2+ ion samples. Moreover, the large difference between the photodissociation efficiencies of ions created in the
v=0 and
v=1 levels provides a way to detect a $v=0\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$ transition. These results pave the way towards high-resolution vibrational spectroscopy of
H2+ for fundamental metrology applications.
Abstract We report a method of creating pure 9Be+ ions by a 2 + 1 resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization for the ionization potential of 75 192.64(6) cm−1 (133 nm). The efficient generation of 9Be+ ions has been realized in a segmented linear ion trap. The average loading rates with a 10 ns, 1 mJ laser at 310 nm and 306 nm are 3.8 and 1.3 ions per pulse, respectively. This method has the advantage of reducing the electron contamination to the ion trap electrodes greatly. It also reduces the requirement of single-photon energy while satisfying the need for ionization probability and can be applied to other atoms with high ionization thresholds.