Merging two molecular beams of ND3 up to the Liouville limit

In low-energy collisions between two dipolar molecules, the long-range dipole-dipole interaction plays an important role in the scattering dynamics. Merged beam configurations offer the lowest collision energies achievable, but they generally cannot be applied to most dipole-dipole systems as the electrodes used to merge one beam would deflect the other. This paper covers the design and implementation of a merged electrostatic guide whose geometry was numerically optimized for ND3-ND3 and ND3-NH3 collisions. This device guides both beams simultaneously and makes them converge up to an effective collision angle of 2°, yielding the optimal compromise between spatial overlap and the lowest possible collision energy. We present preliminary data for inelastic ND3-ND3 collisions.