Low Temperature Chemistry with Trapped Ions

C. D. Ahl, J.M. Hanson, M. Okane +4 more

K. Ravi, S. Lee, Arijit Sharma +2 more

Joan P. Marler

Clemson University | At temperatures 5 orders of magnitude less than room temperature individual ions and ensembles of ions can be studied and manipulated with an unprecedented level of control. To achieve these temperatures ions are isolated in an rf-trap and laser-cooled to temperatures in which their internal states can be measured, set and switched at the individual ion level. Since the earliest days of ion trapping, scientists have appropriated these traps to perform experiments in elds as diverse as fundamental particle physics, anti-matter science, quantum information science, condensed matter, and chemistry. At Clemson near term experiments include following state to state chemical reactions, studying chemistry relevant to astrophysical systems and performing highly accurate measurements of carbon containing organic systems. Additional experiments will explore beyond the standard model physics using Highly Charged Ions (HCIs) from the Clemson EBIT which have been subsequently trapped in an ion trap.

Stefan Willitsch, Martin T. Bell, Alexander D. Gingell +1 more

Ensembles of cold atomic and molecular ions in ion traps prepared at millikelvin temperatures by laser and sympathetic cooling have recently found considerable interest in both physics and chemistry. At very low temperatures the ions form ordered structures in the trap also known as "Coulomb crystals". Ion Coulomb crystals exhibit a range of intriguing properties which render them attractive systems for novel experiments in chemical dynamics, ultrahigh-resolution spectroscopy and quantum-information processing. In this article we review the methods used to prepare atomic and molecular ion Coulomb crystals and discuss some recent studies in mass spectrometry, low-temperature chemistry and precision spectroscopy to illustrate their scientific potential for chemical applications. Finally, we conclude with an outlook on outstanding challenges and prospective further developments in the field.

Roland Wester