Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 19: Cold Molecules II

MO 19.3: Talk

Thursday, March 15, 2012, 14:45–15:00, V38.03

Guided continuous supersonic beams of polar molecules from a cryogenic buffer-gas source — •Xing Wu, Christian Sommer, Sotir Chervenkov, Andreas Rohlfes, Martin Zeppenfeld, Laurens van Buuren, and Gerhard Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany

In order to obtain dense samples of internally and translationally cold polar molecules, we use the method of buffer-gas cooling [1], combined with supersonic expansion. We have demonstrated that when the cryogenic buffer-gas cell is operated in a supersonic regime, molecular fluxes are hydrodynamically enhanced by up to two orders of magnitude. Meanwhile, the translational velocity profile of the output molecular beam is cooled to beyond Mach number 6 via supersonic expansion. Due to the cryogenic cell temperature, the forward velocity of the supersonic molecular beam is below 190 m/s. The low-field-seeking molecules in the so-produced continuous supersonic beam are selected via quadrupole electric guiding and transfered to further experiments. Such high-flux guided continuous supersonic beams from a cryogenic reservoir provide a promising source of polar molecules amenable to deceleration and further cooling.

[1] C. Sommer et al., Faraday Discussions 142, 203 (2009)

L.D. van Buuren et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 033001 (2009)