4 research outputs found
Cold SO_2 molecules by Stark deceleration
We produce SO_2 molecules with a centre of mass velocity near zero using a
Stark decelerator. Since the initial kinetic energy of the supersonic SO_2
molecular beam is high, and the removed kinetic energy per stage is small, 326
deceleration stages are necessary to bring SO_2 to a complete standstill,
significantly more than in other experiments. We show that in such a
decelerator possible loss due to coupling between the motional degrees of
freedom must be considered. Experimental results are compared with 3D
Monte-Carlo simulations and the quantum state selectivity of the Stark
decelerator is demonstrated.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Stark deceleration of CaF molecules in strong- and weak-field seeking states
We report the Stark deceleration of CaF molecules in the strong-field seeking
ground state and in a weak-field seeking component of a rotationally-excited
state. We use two types of decelerator, a conventional Stark decelerator for
the weak-field seekers, and an alternating gradient decelerator for the
strong-field seekers, and we compare their relative merits. We also consider
the application of laser cooling to increase the phase-space density of
decelerated molecules.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure