2008/07/25 by Ludwig Scharfenberg, Henrik Haak, Gerard Meijer +1
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Spectroscopy and Laser Applications #physics.atm-clus
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.79.023410
published as Phys. Rev. A 79, 023410 (2009) · 13 pages, 11 figures
arxiv created 2008/07/25 · openalex publication_date 2009/02/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
With a Stark decelerator, beams of neutral polar molecules can be accelerated, guided at a constant velocity, or decelerated. The effectiveness of this process is determined by the six-dimensional (6D) volume in phase space from which molecules are accepted by the Stark decelerator. Couplings between the longitudinal and transverse motion of the molecules in the decelerator can reduce this acceptance. These couplings are nearly absent when the decelerator operates such that only every third electric-field stage is used for deceleration, while extra transverse focusing is provided by the intermediate stages. For many applications, the acceptance of a Stark decelerator in this so-called s=3 mode significantly exceeds that of a decelerator in the conventionally used (s=1) mode. This has been experimentally verified by passing a beam of OH radicals through a 2.6\text\ensuremath-m-long Stark decelerator. The experiments are in quantitative agreement with the results of trajectory calculations, and can qualitatively be explained with a simple model for the 6D acceptance. These results imply that the 6D acceptance of a Stark decelerator in the s=3 mode of operation approaches the optimum value, i.e., the value that is obtained when any couplings are neglected.