Deceleration of a supersonic beam of SrF molecules to 120 m/s

Abstract

We report on the deceleration of a beam of SrF molecules from 290 to 120~m/s. Following supersonic expansion, the molecules in the $X^2\Sigma$ ($v=0$, $N=1$) low-field seeking states are trapped by the moving potential wells of a traveling-wave Stark decelerator. With a deceleration strength of 9.6 km/s${}^2$ we have demonstrated the removal of 85 % of the initial kinetic energy in a 4 meter long modular decelerator. The absolute amount of kinetic energy removed is a factor 1.5 higher compared to previous Stark deceleration experiments. The demonstrated decelerator provides a novel tool for the creation of highly collimated and slow beams of heavy diatomic molecules, which serve as a good starting point for high-precision tests of fundamental physics.

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Search for New Physics with Atoms and Molecules
• Measuring the electric dipole moment of the electron in BaF
• A buffer gas beam source for short, intense and slow molecular pulses
• Deceleration and trapping of SrF molecules
• Lifetime Measurements of the $A^2{\Pi }_{1/2}$ and $A^2{\Pi }_{3/2}$ States in BaF