Surface-Electrode Rydberg-Stark Decelerator

Optical stark decelerator for molecules.

We demonstrate a single stage optical Stark decelerator for neutral molecules which is capable of reducing the translational energy of benzene molecules within a molecular beam by 15% in a single pulsed Gaussian optical field of 15 ns duration. The change in velocity induced by the optical potential is measured by the change in the time of flight of benzene molecules ionized by a second optical...

Transverse stability in a Stark decelerator

A Stark decelerator on a chip

A microstructured array of 1254 electrodes on a substrate has been configured to generate an array of local minima of electric field strength with a periodicity of 120μm about 25μm above the substrate. By applying sinusoidally varying potentials to the electrodes, these minima can be made to move smoothly along the array. Polar molecules in low-field seeking quantum states can be trapped in the...

Higher-order resonances in a Stark decelerator

Advanced switching schemes in a Stark decelerator