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A team of researchers from the University of Innsbruck, supported by Prof. Dr. Lutz Schweikhard from the Institute of Physics at the University of Greifswald, has set a milestone in physics: the team succeeded for the first time in storing electrically charged helium droplets in an ion trap for up to one minute. The new time span, which is four orders of magnitude longer than previous methods, opens up completely new possibilities for the investigation of processes in physics and chemistry. The results were published recently in the renowned journal Physical Review Letters (PRL).
Helium nanodroplets are tiny, extremely cold accumulations of helium atoms that almost identically imitate the conditions of outer space. As "micro cryolaboratories", they are particularly suitable for the spectroscopic investigation of atoms and molecules in the laboratory under conditions similar to those found in space. Until now, only a very short time slot of a few milliseconds was available whilst the droplets flew from the source to the detector.
A research team from the Department of Ion Physics and Applied Physics at the University of Innsbruck, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Lutz Schweikhard, head of the Atomic and Molecular Physics working group at the University of Greifswald, has now made a decisive breakthrough: using a new type of ion trap, they succeeded for the first time in storing the charged droplets in isolation in a vacuum for a full minute.
Scientific expertise from Greifswald
The University of Greifswald provided decisive support for the experiments in Innsbruck. Professor Schweikhard is an expert in the field of ion trap technology and used his many years of expertise to support the team as an advisor. "The Innsbruck experiments incorporate a great deal of experience gathered by my working group during decades of development and application of this type of ion trap in the measurement of the mass of exotic atomic nuclei at the CERN research centre near Geneva, and in investigations of the properties of atomic clusters in the Greifswald laboratory," says Professor Schweikhard. "The prolonged storage of helium nanodroplets that has resulted from the project is a big step towards more precise investigations that are not only relevant for the field of physics," adds Matthias Veternik, first author of the publication.
The longer period of storage that has now been achieved for the first time also enables more detailed investigations of processes inside the droplets. "To demonstrate this, we embedded water molecules in the helium nanodroplets and investigated their absorption of thermal radiation from the surrounding vacuum apparatus at room temperature. These measurements show the enormous potential of the new method," says Dr. Elisabeth Gruber, a researcher in the Innsbruck team. The next step is already planned: the scientists aim to install detection cylinders in the ion trap in order to measure the helium droplets with regard to their mass, charge and ratio to each other. This technique opens up new paths in nanocalorimetry.
From a laboratory experiment to international recognition
The results of the latest status were published in the journal Physical Review Letters (PRL) https://doi.org/10.1103/yr98-h791 which is considered one of the greatest honours for groundbreaking physics research results. "An illustration of the article was chosen for the cover of the journal, which underlines the high scientific relevance of the topic," says Prof. Lutz Schweikhard.
Further information:
Publication: Extending the Observation Time of Charged Helium Droplets to the Minute Timescale. Veternik, M., Waldhütter, T., Schweikhard, L., Scheier, P., & Gruber, E. Physical Review Letters, 136, 013201. 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/yr98-h791
The publication was the result of a collaboration between a research team from the Department of Ion Physics and Applied Physics at the University of Innsbruck, led by Matthias Veternik, Tobias Waldhütter, Prof. Mag. Dr. Paul Scheier and Dr. Elisabeth Gruber, as well as the Greifswald physicist Prof. Dr. Lutz Schweikhard.
Contact at the University of Greifswald
Prof. Dr. Lutz Schweikhard
Institute of Physics
Atomic and Molecular Physics Group
Felix-Hausdorff-Straße 6, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 420 4700
lschweik@physik.uni-greifswald.de
Contacts at the University of Innsbruck
Department of Ion Physics and Applied Physics
Technikerstrasse 25, 6020 Innsbruck
Dr. Elisabeth Gruber, e.gruber@uibk.ac.at
Prof. Dr. Paul Scheier, paul.scheier@uibk.ac.at
The image shows the new experimental setup that will allow helium droplets to be observed 10,000 tim ...
Quelle: PRL / Graphical Abstract
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The image shows the new experimental setup that will allow helium droplets to be observed 10,000 tim ...
Quelle: PRL / Graphical Abstract
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