Towards cold collisions between dipolar OH and ND$_{3}$ molecules within a permanent magnetic trap

Progress in the field of cold molecules promises many new and exciting applications. The long range dipole-dipole interactions between cold polar molecules may be exploited to control intermolecular elastic/inelastic scattering processes with external electric fields. This same interaction could also be used to study long-range dynamics in condensed matter physics. Our group has successfully trapped Stark-decelerated OH molecules within a permanent magnetic trap at a temperature of 70 mK and density of 10$^{6}$ cm$^{-3}$. The trapped molecules were used in collision studies with external He and D$_{2}$ supersonic beams at temperatures of $\sim $80 K, yielding evidence of quantum threshold scattering and resonant energy transfer between colliding particles. We will report progress towards observation of cold collisions ($\sim $ 1 K) between magnetically trapped OH and buffer-gas cooled, electrostatically-guided ND$_{3}$ molecules. Collision cross sections between OH and ND$_{3}$ will be investigated within a variable external electric field superimposed on the OH magnetic trap.