Low temperature storage ring for ionic molecules and clusters

The aim of this research project is to gain better fundamental understanding of the formation of small pieces of matter that are either relevant for nanoscience or for astrophysics. In particular we will study few atom ionic clusters, whose properties are non-scalable with size, and molecules that are importance for the evolution of the cosmos and the formation of stars. Hereto, a novel setup will be constructed, where clusters and molecular ions will be size-selected with atomic precision, accumulated in an ion trap, and subsequently injected into a compact low temperature ion storage ring. In this ring the small particles will be studied with laser light to investigate the dynamics of different physical processes, e.g. statistical fragmentation pathways, radiative decay and dissociative radiation, in a controlled way.