Trapping and sympathetic cooling of conformationally selected molecular ions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the generation, trapping, and sympathetic cooling of specific conformers of molecular ions, enabling future studies of their spectroscopy and chemistry.

Contribution

It introduces a method for conformationally selective ion trapping and cooling, advancing the control over individual molecular conformers.

Findings

Conformers of molecular ions can be selectively generated and trapped.

Trapped conformers remain stable for over ten minutes.

Sympathetic cooling with laser-cooled calcium ions is effective.

Abstract

We report the generation, trapping and sympathetic cooling of individual conformers of molecular ions with the example of cis- and trans-meta-aminostyrene. Following conformationally selective photoionization, the incorporation of the conformers into a Coulomb crystal of laser-cooled calcium ions was confirmed by fluorescence imaging, mass spectrometry and molecular dynamics simulations. We deduce the molecules to be stable in the trap environment for more than ten minutes. The present results pave the way for the spectroscopy and controlled chemistry of distinct ionic conformers in traps.