Pulsed versus continuous wave operation of a ring Stark decelerator

TL;DR

This paper compares pulsed and continuous wave operation modes of a ring Stark decelerator, demonstrating that pulsed operation is easier to implement and can be more efficient under certain conditions, with experimental and simulation analysis.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental comparison between traveling-wave and pulsed-ring Stark deceleration modes, including a simple model for efficiency determination.

Findings

Pulsed-ring Stark deceleration is easier to implement than traveling-wave mode.

Under certain conditions, pulsed operation can be more efficient.

Experimental and simulated results show comparable performance between modes.

Abstract

Stark deceleration is a technique that uses time-varying inhomogeneous electric fields to decelerate polar molecules for various molecular beam and trapping experiments. New ring-geometry Stark decelerators with continuously varying voltages offer a method to produce a more intense source of molecules in a technique called traveling-wave Stark deceleration. However, this type of deceleration is more experimentally challenging than the more typically used crossed-pin geometry decelerators with pulsed voltages. Here, we present an experimental realization of a ring-geometry Stark decelerator using either continuously varying or discrete voltages. Pulsed-ring Stark deceleration using discrete voltages is easier to implement and, under certain circumstances, is more efficient than traveling-wave Stark deceleration. A comparison of experimental and simulated results between traveling-wave and pulsed-ring Stark deceleration is presented along with a simple model for determining when each mode is more efficient.