# Long-term trapping of cold polar molecules

## TL;DR

This paper reports the successful long-term magnetic trapping of cold OH molecules at cryogenic temperatures, significantly extending trap lifetimes and enabling advanced studies in molecular physics and chemistry.

## Contribution

Demonstrated the first long-term trapping of Stark-decelerated molecules in a cryogenic magnetic trap, reducing losses and enabling new experimental possibilities.

## Key findings

- Trap lifetime extended to nearly a minute
- Achieved translational temperatures around 25 mK
- Suppressed black-body radiation and collisions effectively

## Abstract

We demonstrate the long-term ($<$ 1 minute) trapping of Stark-decelerated OH radicals in their $X~^{2}\Pi _{3/2}~(\nu = 0,~J = 3/2,~M_{J} = 3/2,~f)$ state in a permanent magnetic trap. The trap environment was cryogenically cooled to a temperature of 17 K in order to efficiently suppress black-body-radiation-induced pumping of the molecules out of trappable quantum states and collisions with residual background gas molecules which usually limit the trap lifetimes. The cold molecules were kept confined on timescales approaching minutes, an improvement of up to two orders of magnitude compared to room-temperature experiments, at translational temperatures on the order of 25 mK. The present results pave the way for spectroscopic studies of trapped molecules with long interaction times enabling high precision, for investigations of cold collisions and reactions with very small reaction rates, for new avenues for the production of ultracold molecules via sympathetic cooling and for the realisation of new forms of hybrid matter with co-trapped atoms or ions.