Positions available!
Interested students should inquire with Prof. Heather Lewandowski: lewandoh@colorado.edu
The Lewandowski Group studies collisions and reactions of simple cold molecules and ions. Our ultimate goal is to understand the quantum mechanical processes involved in making and breaking a chemical bond. We aim to control the reacting molecules external and internal degrees of freedom in the quantum regime. To accomplish this control, we slow down a supersonically cooled molecular beam using time-varying inhomogeneous electric fields (Stark deceleration). The cold (~100 mK) molecules are then loaded into an electrostatic trap to allow for interactions to be studied for several seconds.