Related papers: Slow decay processes of electrostatically trapped …
N$_2$ molecules traveling in pulsed supersonic beams have been excited from their ${\mathrm{X\,^1\Sigma_{\mathrm{g}}^+}}$ ground electronic state to long-lived Rydberg states with principal quantum numbers between 39 and 48 using a…
High Rydberg states of nitric oxide (NO) with principal quantum numbers between 40 and 100 and lifetimes in excess of 10 $\mu$s have been prepared by resonance enhanced two-color two-photon laser excitation from the X $^2\Pi_{1/2}$ ground…
Beams of helium atoms in Rydberg-Stark states with principal quantum number $n=48$ and electric dipole moments of 4600~D have been decelerated from a mean initial longitudinal speed of 2000~m/s to zero velocity in the laboratory-fixed…
Metastable (1s)(2s) $^3{\rm S}_1$ helium atoms produced in a supersonic beam were excited to Rydberg-Stark states (with $n$ in the $27-30$ range) in a cryogenic environment and subsequently decelerated by, and trapped above, a…
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…
Supersonic beams of hydrogen atoms, prepared selectively in Rydberg-Stark states of principal quantum number $n$ in the range between 25 and 35, have been deflected by 90$^\circ$, decelerated and loaded into off-axis electric traps at…
The large electric dipole moments associated with highly excited Rydberg states of atoms and molecules make gas-phase samples in these states very well suited to deceleration and trapping using inhomogeneous electric fields. The methods of…
Beams of helium atoms in Rydberg states with principal quantum number $n=52$, and traveling with an initial speed of 1950 m/s, have been accelerated, decelerated and guided while confined in moving electric traps generated above a curved,…
We report on the Stark deceleration of a pulsed molecular beam of NO radicals. Stark deceleration of this chemically important species has long been considered unfeasible due to its small electric dipole moment of 0.16 D. We prepared the NO…
Penning ionization releases electrons in a state-selected Rydberg gas of nitric oxide entrained in a supersonic molecular beam. Subsequent processes of electron impact avalanche, bifurcation, and quench form a strongly coupled, spatially…
Double-resonant photoexcitation of nitric oxide in a molecular beam creates a dense ensemble of $50f(2)$ Rydberg states, which evolves to form a plasma of free electrons trapped in the potential well of an NO$^+$ spacecharge. The plasma…
We demonstrate the long-term ($<$ 1 minute) trapping of Stark-decelerated OH radicals in their $X~^{2}\Pi _{3/2}~(\nu = 0,~J = 3/2,~M_{J} = 3/2,~f)$ state in a permanent magnetic trap. The trap environment was cryogenically cooled to a…
A pulsed beam of ground state OH radicals is slowed down using a Stark decelerator and is subsequently loaded into an electrostatic trap. Characterization of the molecular beam production, deceleration and trap loading process is performed…
We report on the Stark deceleration and electrostatic trapping of $^{14}$NH ($a ^1\Delta$) radicals. In the trap, the molecules are excited on the spin-forbidden $A ^3\Pi \leftarrow a ^1\Delta$ transition and detected via their subsequent…
We present an analysis of the deceleration and trapping of heavy diatomic molecules in low-field seeking states by a moving electric potential. This moving potential is created by a 'ring-decelerator', which consists of a series of…
We present experiments on decelerating and trapping ammonia molecules using a combination of a Stark decelerator and a traveling wave decelerator. In the traveling wave decelerator a moving potential is created by a series of ring-shaped…
We demonstrate experimentally the guiding of cold and slow ND3 molecules along a thin charged wire over a distance of ~0.34 m through an entire molecular beam apparatus. Trajectory simulations confirm that both linear and quadratic…
A simple method to control molecular translation with a chemical reaction is demonstrated. Slow NO molecules have been produced by partially canceling the molecular beam velocity of NO$_2$ with the recoil velocity of the NO photofragment.…
We report the spontaneous formation of a plasma from a gas of cold Rydberg molecules. Double-resonant laser excitation promotes nitric oxide, cooled to 1 K in a seeded supersonic molecular beam, to single Rydberg states extending as deep as…
Stark deceleration has been utilized for slowing and trapping several species of neutral, ground-state polar molecules generated in a supersonic beam expansion. Due to the finite physical dimension of the electrode array and practical…