Preparing single ultra-cold antihydrogen atoms for free-fall in GBAR

Abstract

We discuss an experimental approach allowing to prepare antihydrogen atoms for the GBAR experiment. We study the feasibility of all necessary experimental steps: The capture of incoming [Formula: see text] ions at keV energies in a deep linear RF trap, sympathetic cooling by laser cooled Be + ions, transfer to a miniaturized trap and Raman sideband cooling of an ion pair to the motional ground state, and further reducing the momentum of the wavepacket by adiabatic opening of the trap. For each step, we point out the experimental challenges and discuss the efficiency and characteristic times, showing that capture and cooling are possible within a few seconds.