Related papers: Slow and velocity-tunable beams of metastable He$_…
We present experimental results that demonstrate - for the first time - the Zeeman deceleration of helium atoms in the metastable 2^3S_1state. A more than 40% decrease of the kinetic energy of the beam is achieved for deceleration from 490…
Recently, high-resolution spectroscopy of slow beams of metastable helium molecules (He$_2^*$) generated by multistage Zeeman deceleration was used in combination with Rydberg-series extrapolation techniques to obtain the lowest rotational…
A supersonic beam of metastable neon atoms has been decelerated by exploiting the interaction between the magnetic moment of the atoms and time-dependent inhomogeneous magnetic fields in a multistage Zeeman decelerator. Using 91…
Metastable helium molecules generated in a discharge near a sharp tungsten tip operated in either pulsed mode or continuous field-emission mode in superfluid liquid $^{4}$He are imaged using a laser-induced-fluorescence technique. By…
Precision spectroscopic measurements in atoms and molecules play an increasingly important role in chemistry and physics, e.g., to characterize structure and dynamics at long timescales, to determine physical constants, or to search for…
Discharge and electron-impact excitation lead to the production of metastable helium atoms in two metastable states, 2$^1$S$_0$ and 2$^3$S$_1$. However, many applications require pure beams of one of these species or at least a detailed…
We demonstrate the successful experimental implementation of a multi-stage Zeeman decelerator utilizing the new concept described in the accompanying paper. The decelerator consists of an array of 25 hexapoles and 24 solenoids. The…
Zeeman deceleration is a relatively new technique used to obtain full control over the velocity of paramagnetic atoms or molecules in a molecular beam. We present a detailed description of a multistage Zeeman decelerator that has recently…
Multistage Zeeman deceleration is a technique used to reduce the velocity of neutral molecules with a magnetic dipole moment. Here we present a Zeeman decelerator that consists of 100 solenoids and 100 magnetic hexapoles, that is based on a…
We report the slowing of a supersonic beam by elastic reflection from a receding atomic mirror. We use a pulsed supersonic nozzle to generate a 511 +/- 9 m/s beam of helium that we slow by reflection from a Si(111)-H(1x1) crystal placed on…
We present a new concept for a multi-stage Zeeman decelerator that is optimized particularly for applications in molecular beam scattering experiments. The decelerator consists of a series of alternating hexapoles and solenoids, that…
A novel traveling-wave Zeeman decelerator based on a double-helix coil geometry capable of decelerating paramagnetic molecules with high efficiency is presented. Moving magnetic traps are generated by applying time-dependent currents…
We experimentally demonstrate control of molecular rotation in bulk superfluid $^4\mathrm{He}$. Metastable helium dimers, $\mathrm{He}_2^*$, are rotationally excited by a periodic train of linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulses. We…
We employ laser cooling to intensify and cool an atomic beam of metastable Ne(3s) atoms. Using several collimators, a slower and a compressor we achieve a ^{20}Ne^* flux of 6 10^{10} atoms/s in an 0.7 mm diameter beam traveling at 100 m/s,…
We report the realization of a BEC of metastable helium-4 atoms (4He*) in an all optical potential. Up to 10^5 spin polarized 4He* atoms are condensed in an optical dipole trap formed from a single, focused, vertically propagating far…
We describe a pulsed rotating supersonic beam source, evolved from an ancestral device [M. Gupta and D. Herschbach, J. Phys. Chem. A 105, 1626 (2001)]. The beam emerges from a nozzle near the tip of a hollow rotor which can be spun at…
An improved system for creating a pulsed, low-temperature molecular beam of OH radicals has been developed. We use a pulsed discharge to create OH from H$_2$O seeded in Xe during a supersonic expansion, where the high-voltage pulse duration…
We have produced a Bose-Einstein condensate of metastable helium (4He*) containing over 1.5x10^7 atoms, which is a factor of 25 higher than previously achieved. The improved starting conditions for evaporative cooling are obtained by…
We report on the production of a pulsed molecular beam of metastable NH ($a ^1\Delta$) radicals and present first results on the Stark deceleration of the NH ($a ^1\Delta, J=2, M\Omega=-4$) radicals from 550 m/s to 330 m/s. The decelerated…
We present a novel slowing scheme for beams of laser-coolable diatomic molecules reminiscent of Zeeman slowing of atomic beams. The scheme results in efficient compression of the 1-dimensional velocity distribution to velocities trappable…