Traveling-wave deceleration of SrF molecules

• Published in: Journal of molecular spectroscopy Vol. 300; pp. 22 - 25
• Main Authors: van den Berg, J.E., Mathavan, S.C., Meinema, C., Nauta, J., Nijbroek, T.H., Jungmann, K., Bethlem, H.L., Hoekstra, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01-06-2014
• Subjects: Cold molecules; Parity violation; Stark deceleration; Strontium Fluoride (SrF); Parity violation; Cold molecules; Strontium Fluoride (SrF); Stark deceleration
• ISSN: 0022-2852; 1096-083X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jms.2014.02.004

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•We present the first deceleration of SrF molecules.•We have demonstrated the stability of a modular traveling-wave decelerator.•This opens the way for the creation of ultra cold gases of heavy diatomic molecules.
We report on the production, deceleration and detection of a SrF molecular beam. The molecules are captured from a supersonic expansion and are decelerated in the X2Σ+(v=0,N=1) state. We demonstrate the removal of up to 40% of the kinetic energy with a 2m long modular traveling-wave decelerator. Our results demonstrate a crucial step towards the preparation of ultracold gases of heavy diatomic molecules for precision spectroscopy.