Trapping of Molecular Oxygen together with Lithium Atoms

We demonstrate simultaneous deceleration and trapping of a cold atomic and molecular mixture. This is the first step towards studies of cold atom-molecule collisions at low temperatures as well as application of sympathetic cooling. Both atoms and molecules are cooled in a supersonic expansion and are loaded into a moving magnetic trap that brings them to rest via the Zeeman interaction from an initial velocity of 375 m/s. We use a beam seeded with molecular oxygen, and entrain it with lithium atoms by laser ablation prior to deceleration. The deceleration ends with loading of the mixture into a static quadrupole trap, which is generated by two permanent magnets. We estimate 10(9) trapped O-2 molecules and 10(5) Li atoms with background pressure limited lifetime on the order of 1 sec. With further improvements to lithium entrainment we expect that sympathetic cooling of molecules is within reach.