Model for the overall phase-space acceptance in a Zeeman decelerator

We present a new formalism to calculate phase-space acceptance in a Zeeman decelerator. Using parameters closely mimicking previous Zeeman deceleration experiments, this approach reveals a hitherto unconsidered velocity dependence of the phase stability which we ascribe to the finite rise and fall times of the current pulses that generate the magnetic fields inside the deceleration coils. It is shown that changing the current switch-off times as the sequence progresses, so as to maintain a constant mean acceleration per pulse, can lead to a constant phase stability and hence a beam with well-defined characteristics. We also find that the time overlap between fields of adjacent coils has an influence on the phase-space acceptance. Previous theoretical and experimental results suggested unfilled regions in phase space that influence particle transmission through the decelerator. Our model provides, for the first time, a means to directly identify the origin of these effects due to coupling between longitudinal and transverse dynamics. Since optimum phase stability is restricted to a rather small parameter range in terms of the reduced position of the synchronous particle, only a limited range of final velocities can be attained using a given number of coils. We evaluate phase stability for different Zeeman deceleration sequences, and, by comparison with numerical three-dimensional particle trajectory simulations, we demonstrate that our model provides a valuable tool to find optimum parameter sets for improved Zeeman deceleration schemes. An acceleration-deceleration scheme is shown to be a useful approach to generating beams with well-defined properties for variable-energy collision experiments. More generally, the model provides significant physical insights applicable to other types of particle decelerators with finite rise and fall time fields

Getting a Grip on the Transverse Motion in a Zeeman Decelerator

Zeeman deceleration is an experimental technique in which inhomogeneous, time-dependent magnetic fields generated inside an array of solenoid coils are used to manipulate the velocity of a supersonic beam. A 12-stage Zeeman decelerator has been built and characterized using hydrogen atoms as a test system. The instrument has several original features including the possibility to replace each deceleration coil individually. In this article, we give a detailed description of the experimental setup, and illustrate its performance. We demonstrate that the overall acceptance in a Zeeman decelerator can be significantly increased with only minor changes to the setup itself. This is achieved by applying a rather low, anti-parallel magnetic field in one of the solenoid coils that forms a temporally varying quadrupole field, and improves particle confinement in the transverse direction. The results are reproduced by three-dimensional numerical particle trajectory simulations thus allowing for a rigorous analysis of the experimental data. The findings suggest the use of a modified coil configuration to improve transverse focusing during the deceleration process.Comment: accepted by J. Chem. Phy

Ionization of Rydberg atoms embedded in an ultracold plasma

We have studied the behavior of cold Rydberg atoms embedded in an ultracold plasma. We demonstrate that even deeply bound Rydberg atoms are completely ionized in such an environment, due to electron collisions. Using a fast pulse extraction of the electrons from the plasma we found that the number of excess positive charges, which is directly related to the electron temperature Te, is not strongly affected by the ionization of the Rydberg atoms. Assuming a Michie-King equilibrium distribution, in analogy with globular star cluster dynamics, we estimate Te. Without concluding on heating or cooling of the plasma by the Rydberg atoms, we discuss the range for changing the plasma temperature by adding Rydberg atoms.Comment: To be published in P.R.

Loading Stark-decelerated molecules into electrostatic quadrupole traps

Beams of neutral polar molecules in a low-field seeking quantum state can be slowed down using a Stark decelerator, and can subsequently be loaded and confined in electrostatic quadrupole traps. The efficiency of the trap loading process is determined by the ability to couple the decelerated packet of molecules into the trap without loss of molecules and without heating. We discuss the inherent difficulties to obtain ideal trap loading, and describe and compare different trap loading strategies. A new "split-endcap" quadrupole trap design is presented that enables improved trap loading efficiencies. This is experimentally verified by comparing the trapping of OH radicals using the conventional and the new quadrupole trap designs

Deceleration and electrostatic trapping of OH radicals

A pulsed beam of ground state OH radicals is slowed down using a Stark decelerator and is subsequently loaded into an electrostatic trap. Characterization of the molecular beam production, deceleration and trap loading process is performed via laser induced fluorescence detection inside the quadrupole trap. Depending on details of the trap loading sequence, typically $10^5$ OH ($X^2\Pi_{3/2}, J=3/2$) radicals are trapped at a density of around $10^7$ cm$^{-3}$ and at temperatures in the 50-500 mK range. The 1/e trap lifetime is around 1.0 second.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Direct measurement of the radiative lifetime of vibrationally excited OH radicals

Neutral molecules, isolated in the gas-phase, can be prepared in a long-lived excited state and stored in a trap. The long observation time afforded by the trap can then be exploited to measure the radiative lifetime of this state by monitoring the temporal decay of the population in the trap. This method is demonstrated here and used to benchmark the Einstein $A$-coefficients in the Meinel system of OH. A pulsed beam of vibrationally excited OH radicals is Stark decelerated and loaded into an electrostatic quadrupole trap. The radiative lifetime of the upper $\Lambda$-doublet component of the $X ^2\Pi_{3/2}, v=1, J=3/2$ level is determined as $59.0 \pm 2.0$ ms, in good agreement with the calculated value of $57.7 \pm 1.0$ ms.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Decelerating molecules with microwave fields

We here report on the experimental realization of a microwave decelerator for neutral polar molecules, suitable for decelerating and focusing molecules in high-field-seeking states. The multi-stage decelerator consists of a cylindrical microwave cavity oscillating on the TE 11n mode, with n=12 electric field maxima along the symmetry axis. By switching the microwave field on and off at the appropriate times, a beam of state-selected ammonia molecules with an incident mean velocity of 25 m/s is guided while being spatially focussed in the transverse direction and bunched in the forward direction. Deceleration from 20.0 m/s to 16.9 m/s and acceleration from 20.0 m/s to 22.7 m/s is demonstrated.Comment: 4 Pages, 3 Figure

LS-CMA-ES: a Second-order algorithm for Covariance Matrix Adaptation

International audienceEvolution Strategies, Evolutionary Algorithms based on Gaussian mutation and deterministic selection, are today considered the best choice as far as parameter optimization is concerned. However, there are multiple ways to tune the covariance matrix of the Gaussian mutation. After reviewing the state of the art in covariance matrix adaptation, a new approach is proposed, in which the covariance matrix adaptation method is based on a quadratic approximation of the target function obtained by some Least-Square minimization. A dynamic criterion is designed to detect situations where the approximation is not accurate enough, and original Covariance Matrix Adaptation (CMA) should rather be directly used. The resulting algorithm is experimentally validated on benchmark functions, performing much better than CMA-ES on a large class of problems

Optical pumping of trapped neutral molecules by blackbody radiation

Optical pumping by blackbody radiation is a feature shared by all polar molecules and fundamentally limits the time that these molecules can be kept in a single quantum state in a trap. To demonstrate and quantify this, we have monitored the optical pumping of electrostatically trapped OH and OD radicals by room-temperature blackbody radiation. Transfer of these molecules to rotationally excited states by blackbody radiation at 295 K limits the $1/e$ trapping time for OH and OD in the $X^{2}\Pi_{3/2},v''=0,J''=3/2(f)$ state to 2.8 s and 7.1 s, respectively.Comment: corrected small mistakes; added journal reference