Slow, Continuous Beams of Large Gas Phase Molecules

TL;DR

This paper reports the creation of cold, continuous, high-flux beams of large gas-phase molecules using buffer-gas cooling, enabling advanced spectroscopic and manipulation techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a method for producing slow, continuous molecular beams of large molecules with high flux using buffer-gas cooling at cryogenic temperatures.

Findings

Benzonitrile beam velocity peaked at 67 m/s

Achieved a flux of 10^15 molecules per second

Demonstrated potential for high-resolution spectroscopy and trapping

Abstract

Cold, continuous, high flux beams of benzonitrile, fluorobenzine, and anisole have been created. Buffer-gas cooling with a cryogenic gas provides the cooling and slow forward beam velocities. The beam of benzonitrile was measured to have a forward velocity peaked at 67 $\pm 5$ m s$^{-1}$, and a continuous flux of $10^{15}$ molecules s$^{-1}$. These beams provide a continuous source for high resolution spectroscopy, and provide an attractive starting point for further spatial manipulation of such molecules, including eventual trapping.