Trapping of radioactive 21Na

Radioactive 21Na atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) provide an excellent opportunity to search for non-Standard Model contributions in the weak interactions. In particular, correlations between the β-particle and the neutrino are sensitive to time reversal symmetry violating effects. The Na isotope is produced at the TRIμP facility of the KVI using intense 20Ne beams from the AGOR cyclotron on a cooled deuterium target. The isotopes are stopped and re-thermalized in a Thermal Ionizer. They are transported as a low energy ion beam to a MOT cell where they are neutralized and subsequently captured by laser light. The trapped Na atoms will be transferred to a second MOT which is placed inside a reaction microscope to measure the momentum distribution of the recoiling daughter nuclei after the β-decay. The β-particle will be detected in a scintillation detector. These two devices have been characterized. A pulsed UV laser was used to ionize trapped Na atoms in order to simulate the β-decay in the reaction microscope. The momentum distribution of the recoil ions is measured. The setup of the whole experiment will be presented.