Deceleration of neutral molecules in macroscopic traveling traps

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel decelerator for polar neutral molecules using traveling electric potential wells, enabling stable 3D trapping and superior performance compared to existing methods, demonstrated with CO molecules.

Contribution

It presents a new traveling potential well decelerator that offers larger acceptance and higher acceleration capabilities for neutral molecules.

Findings

Successfully guided and decelerated CO molecules

Demonstrated larger acceptance than previous decelerators

Operates with stable three-dimensional trapping

Abstract

A new type of decelerator is presented where polar neutral molecules are guided and decelerated using the principle of traveling electric potential wells, such that molecules are confined in stable three-dimensional traps throughout. This new decelerator is superior to the best currently operational decelerator (Scharfenberg et al., Phys.Rev.A 79, 023410(2009)), providing a substantially larger acceptance even at higher accelerations. The mode of operation is described and experimentally demonstrated by guiding and decelerating CO molecules.