A detailed understanding of the formation and destruction of free nanometer sized structures is still a challenge in fundamental research.

Presently we are using a high temperature trapping technique for modeling astrochemical processes occurring in stellar outflows where the ejected matter starts at temperatures above 5000 K. Besides thermal stability of hot interstellar grain equivalents the method allows to explore their growth in a suitable gaseous environment. In addition we can gain structural information via a new spectroscopy method: WSH: wavelength specific heating.

First successful tests have been performed recently with an ensemble of several thousand C_60⁺ ions, confined in the trap. Their temperature has been maintained constant over half an hour at values up to 2000 K using about 7 W of a CO₂ laser. The hot particles are characterized in situ by imaging their thermal emission onto an ICCD camera or by counting the emitted photons in various spectral regions.