Decay rate measurement of the first vibrationally excited state of MgH\(^+\) in a cryogenic Paul trap

We present a method to measure the decay rate of the first excited vibrational state of simple polar molecular ions being part of a Coulomb crystal in a cryogenic linear Paul trap. Specifically, we have monitored the decay of the \(|\nu\)=\(1,J\)=\(1 \rangle_X\) towards the \(|\nu\)=\(0,J\)=\(0 \ran...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2013-05
Main Authors: Versolato, O O, Schwarz, M, Hansen, A K, Gingell, A D, Windberger, A, Kłosowski, Ł, Ullrich, J, Jensen, F, Crespo López-Urrutia, J R, Drewsen, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Decay rate
Molecular ions
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We present a method to measure the decay rate of the first excited vibrational state of simple polar molecular ions being part of a Coulomb crystal in a cryogenic linear Paul trap. Specifically, we have monitored the decay of the \(|\nu\)=\(1,J\)=\(1 \rangle_X\) towards the \(|\nu\)=\(0,J\)=\(0 \rangle_X\) level in MgH\(^+\) by saturated laser excitation of the \(|\nu\)=\(0,J\)=\(2 \rangle_X\)-\(|\nu\)=\(1,J\)=\(1 \rangle_X\) transition followed by state selective resonance enhanced two-photon dissociation out of the \(|\nu\)=\(0,J\)=\(2 \rangle_X\) level. The technique enables the determination of decay rates, and thus absorption strengths, with an accuracy at the few percent level.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1305.4087