Magnetic Trapping of Cold Methyl Radicals

We have demonstrated that a supersonic beam of methyl radicals (CH3) in the ground rotational state of both para and ortho species 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 CH3 radicals have a mean translational temperature of about 200 mK with an estimated density of > 5.0 x 10(7) cm(-3). The methyl radical is an ideal system for the study of cold molecules not only because of its high reactivities at low temperatures, but also because further cooling below 1 mK is plausible via sympathetic cooling with ultracold atoms. The demonstrated trapping capability of methyl radicals opens up various possibilities for realizing ultracold ensembles of molecules towards Bose-Einstein condensation of polyatomic molecules and investigations of reactions governed by quantum statistics.