Deceleration and trapping of SrF molecules

Abstract

We report on the electrostatic trapping of neutral SrF molecules. The molecules are captured from a cryogenic buffer-gas beam source into the moving traps of a 4.5 m long traveling-wave Stark decelerator. The SrF molecules in $X^2{\Sigma }^{+}(v=0,N=1)$ state are brought to rest as the velocity of the moving traps is gradually reduced from 190 m/s to zero. The molecules are held for up to 50 ms in multiple electric traps of the decelerator. The trapped packets have a volume (FWHM) of 1 mm${}^3$ and a velocity spread of 5(1) m/s which corresponds to a temperature of $60(20)$ mK. Our result demonstrates a factor 3 increase in the molecular mass that has been Stark-decelerated and trapped. Heavy molecules (mass$>$100 amu) offer a highly increased sensitivity to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. This work significantly extends the species of neutral molecules of which slow beams can be created for collision studies, precision measurement and trapping experiments.

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Quantum control of molecules for fundamental physics
• Cryogenic Buffer Gas beams of AlF, CaF, MgF, YbF, Al, Ca, Yb and NO -- a comparison
• Electrostatic focusing of cold and heavy molecules for the ACME electron EDM search
• Influence of source parameters on the longitudinal phase-space distribution of a pulsed cryogenic beam of barium fluoride molecules
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