| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/S06813/01 |
| Title: |
Study and application of ultracold molecules |
| Principal Investigator: |
Softley, Professor T |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Oxford Chemistry |
| Organisation: |
University of Oxford |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 April 2003 |
Ends: |
30 September 2006 |
Value (£): |
377,810
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Chemical Structure |
Cold Atomic Species |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Chemicals |
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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| Panel History: |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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New techniques have recently been developed for cooling gas-phase molecules into the milliKelvin regime, and the aim of this project is to explore applications for these techniques as well as to contribute to the ongoing development of them. An electrostatic storage ring will be set up into which two different molecular species will be injected after cooling to effective temperatures as low as 10 mK in a Stark decelerator . Collisions between the trapped species will be studied; initially the electronic quenching of metastable CO by various dipolar partners, and subsequently reactive collisions of OH radicals. The purpose is to investigate quantum effects on barrierless chemical processes at collision energies for which the deBroglie wavelength is long compared to molecular dimensions. We will develop a trap for non-polar molecules that have been laser excited to Rydberg states, again based on electrostatic inhomogeneous fields. The trap will be characterized, especially for H2 molecules, and the project will culminate in the combination of this trap with the Stark decelerator for polar molecules (NH3) to investigate collisions of Rydberg molecules with dipolar species at very low collision energies. These collisional processes are expected to be analogous to ion-molecule reactions.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.ox.ac.uk |