Decelerating and Trapping Large Polar Molecules.

Area of Science:

• Molecular physics
• Quantum chemistry
• Laser cooling and trapping

Background:

• Trapping large polyatomic molecules (e.g., benzonitrile) is challenging compared to diatomic molecules.
• Existing methods struggle with molecules larger than 5 atoms, limiting research in areas like high-resolution spectroscopy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a general technique for decelerating and trapping volatile neutral polar prolate asymmetric top molecules.
• To enable high-resolution spectroscopy and study slow intramolecular dynamics of large molecules.

Main Methods:

• Combining a novel "asymmetric doublet state" Stark decelerator.
• Utilizing slow, cold, buffer-gas-cooled beams of closed-shell volatile molecules.

Main Results:

• The proposed technique is applicable to most stable volatile molecules (100-500 AMU).
• It can produce trapped samples in a single rotational state with temperatures of hundreds of mK.

Conclusions:

• This general trapping system overcomes previous limitations for large polyatomic molecules.
• It opens avenues for unprecedented spectroscopic resolution and direct observation of slow intramolecular processes.