Toward efficient deceleration and production of cold, neutral radioactive molecules

Polar molecules containing radioactive, octupole-deformed nuclei can have enhanced sensitivities to hadronic CP-violation that exceed that for atoms with no nuclear deformation by more than six orders of magnitude [1-3]. However, such systems are typically produced in minuscule quantities and delivered as energetic ions at high temperatures, limiting their use for precision experiments. Although these highly energetic ions could be cooled via buffer gas cooling, a technique that would both cool and neutralize the ions efficiently to produce intense neutral, cold radioactive molecules has yet to be developed. We present progress on the development of an experimental setup that aims to inject high energy molecular ions with energies of few tens of keV into a cryogenic buffer gas cell. Once inside the cell, the ions will be stopped by the buffer gas and various neutralization methods will be explored. When combined with radioactive ion beam facilities, this technique is expected to efficiently produce cool short lived radioactive molecules, paving the way for future precision studies of these systems.