Pulsed versus continuous wave operation of a ring Stark decelerator
Abstract
Stark deceleration is a technique that uses time-varying inhomogeneous electric fields to decelerate polar molecules for various molecular beam and trapping experiments. New ring-geometry Stark decelerators with continuously varying voltages offer a method to produce a more intense source of molecules in a technique called traveling-wave Stark deceleration. However, this type of deceleration is more experimentally challenging than the more typically used crossed-pin geometry decelerators with pulsed voltages. Here, we present an experimental realization of a ring-geometry Stark decelerator using either continuously varying or discrete voltages. Pulsed-ring Stark deceleration using discrete voltages is easier to implement and, under certain circumstances, is more efficient than traveling-wave Stark deceleration. A comparison of experimental and simulated results between traveling-wave and pulsed-ring Stark deceleration is presented along with a simple model for determining when each mode is more efficient.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1712.07044,
title = {Pulsed versus continuous wave operation of a ring Stark decelerator},
author = {Yomay Shyur and Jason A. Bossert and H. J. Lewandowski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.07044},
year = {2017}
}