Magnetic Trapping of Cold Methyl Radicals

We have demonstrated that a supersonic beam of methyl radicals (CH_3 in the ground rotational state of both paraand orthospecies has been slowed down to standstill with a magnetic molecular decelerator, and successfully captured spatially in an anti-Helmholtz magnetic trap for >1 s. The trapped CH_3radicals have a mean translational temperature of about 200 mK with an estimated density of >5.0\times10^7cm^{-3} The methyl...