Continuous centrifuge decelerator for polar molecules

Area of Science:

• Molecular physics
• Atomic, molecular, and optical physics

Background:

• Producing slow molecules from thermal ensembles is a significant experimental challenge.
• Existing methods for molecular deceleration often lack high flux or continuous operation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for producing continuous beams of slow molecules.
• To demonstrate the effectiveness of a centrifuge-based approach for molecular deceleration.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing centrifugal force to decelerate molecules in a continuous beam.
• Employing electric fields for guiding three specific molecular species: CH3F, CF3H, and CF3CCH.
• Measuring input and output velocities and beam intensities.

Main Results:

• Achieved continuous molecular beams with velocities below 15 m/s.
• Obtained high beam intensities of several 10^9 mm^-2 s^-1.
• Demonstrated deceleration for multiple molecular species from input velocities up to 200 m/s.

Conclusions:

• Centrifugal force provides an effective means for continuous molecular beam deceleration.
• The developed centrifuge decelerator is easy to operate and broadly applicable to guidable particles.
• This technique has the potential to become a standard method for producing slow molecules.