2008/03/05 by Kirstin Wohlfart, Fabian Grätz, Frank Filsinger +3 · 2 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Spectroscopy and Laser Applications #physics.acc-ph #physics.atom-ph #physics.chem-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.77.031404
published as Phys. Rev. A 77(3), 031404(R) (2008) · 5 pages, 4 figures, revtex4
arxiv created 2008/03/05 · openalex publication_date 2008/03/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We have focused and decelerated benzonitrile (C7H5N) molecules from a molecular beam, using an array of time-varying inhomogeneous electric fields in alternating-gradient configuration. Benzonitrile is prototypical for large asymmetric top molecules that exhibit rich rotational structure and a high density of states. At the rotational temperature of 3.5\phantom\rule0.3em0exK in the pulsed molecular beam, many rotational states are populated. Benzonitrile molecules in their absolute ground state are decelerated from 320\phantom\rule0.3em0exto\phantom\rule0.3em0ex289\phantom\rule0.3em0exm∕s, and similar changes in velocity are obtained for excited rotational states. All measurements agree well with the outcome of trajectory calculations. These experiments demonstrate that such large polyatomic molecules are amenable to the powerful method of Stark deceleration.