Guiding slow polar molecules with a charged wire

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the experimental guiding of cold, slow ND3 molecules using a charged wire, achieving significant density enhancement and confirming the guiding of high-field-seeking Stark states through simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for guiding slow polar molecules with a charged wire and validates it through experiments and trajectory simulations.

Findings

Achieved guiding of ND3 molecules over 0.34 m

Density enhancement up to 7 times for slow molecules

Guiding of high-field-seeking Stark states confirmed by simulations

Abstract

We demonstrate experimentally the guiding of cold and slow ND3 molecules along a thin charged wire over a distance of ~0.34 m through an entire molecular beam apparatus. Trajectory simulations confirm that both linear and quadratic high-field-seeking Stark states can be efficiently guided from the beam source up to the detector. A density enhancement up to a factor 7 is reached for decelerated beams with velocities ranging down to ~50 m/s generated by the rotating nozzle technique.