One of the last user experiments of 2018 was conducted by an all-star team led by Jérôme Bernard from the Institut Lumière Matière at University of Lyon 1. This ambitious project demonstrates how the extreme sensitivity of DESIREE can be leveraged to explore ultraslow statistical processes in complex molecular systems.

Who are you; where are you from?

Jérôme BERNARD and Serge MARTIN from Lyon, France. Christine JOBLIN and Gabi WENZEL from Toulouse France. MingChao JI from Toulouse, France at time of the application and recently hired as a Post-doc in Stockholm University

What is your research in general?

In Lyon, our present research, we aim to study the properties of PAH (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) cations on long time scale using electrostatic ion storage rings. In Lyon, we have built a compact storage ring so-called the Mini-Ring, in order to store PAH cation up to 1s. Up to now, we focused on the ms range to provide evidence of the fast radiative cooling, by recurrent fluorescence, of small PAH cations such as Naphthalene, Anthracene and Pyrene. Recently, we performed photodissociation spectroscopy on dimers of PAHs. We aim to study the cooling of such species by following the width of the CR absorption band as a function of the internal energy. We collaborate extensively on these subjects with the team of Toulouse (Christine Joblin and co-workers) as they have decades of expertise in the field of PAHs.

How will your experiments at DESIREE further your research?

With DESIREE, we have access to very long storage times and very low temperatures that are not presently available with the Mini-Ring in Lyon. With DESIREE, we will have the opportunity to quantify more precisely the infrared radiative cooling rate of PAHs cations.

Are there any unique capabilities of DESIREE that you are exploiting?

Due to the very low temperature of DESIREE and the very long storage times, we expect to be able follow the radiative cooling of PAHs and small clusters of PAHs down to very low internal energies.

How do you find it to work at the infrastructure?

We spent a very good week at DESIREE, with a very friendly staff. We have appreciated the efforts made by all the people in order to provide difficult ion beams and to get the best outcome from DESIREE.