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arXiv:0802.2902 · New Journal of Physics

Reflection of OH molecules from magnetic mirrors

Markus Metsälä, Joop J. Gilijamse, Steven Hoekstra, Sebastiaan Y. T. van de Meerakker, Gerard Meijer

Published May 14, 2008• 11 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We have reflected a Stark-decelerated beam of OH molecules under normal incidence from mirrors consisting of permanent magnets. Two different types of magnetic mirrors have been demonstrated. A long-range flat mirror made from a large disc magnet has been used to spatially focus the reflected beam in the longitudinal direction ('bunching'). A short-range curved mirror composed of an array of small cube magnets allows for transverse focusing of the reflected beam.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/10/5/053018

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We have reflected a Stark-decelerated beam of OH molecules under normal incidence from mirrors consisting of permanent magnets. Two different types of magnetic mirrors have been demonstrated. A long-range flat mirror made from a large disc magnet has been used to spatially focus the reflected beam in the longitudinal direction ('bunching'). A short-range curved mirror composed of an array of small cube magnets allows for transverse focusing of the reflected beam.
An electrostatic mirror for neutral polar molecules has been constructed using an array of electrodes of alternating polarity between which a high potential was applied. This configuration produces an exponentially evanescing electric field that interacts with polar molecules by the Stark effect. The spatial gradients of the Stark energies produce forces which were used to reflect a pulsed beam of chloromethane (CH 3 Cl) molecules with a reflectivity of 25% at grazing angles of incidence of around 5 mrad. Reflections have also been produced with applied voltages as low as 100 V or with grazing angles greater than 20 mrad. This type of device could be useful for the manipulation of slow molecular beams and would permit the construction of optical elements for the de Broglie waves of molecules.
Reflective atom optics has been experimentally realized with a continuous flux of cold atoms by using a magnetized videotape. We have studied the behaviour of a slow atomic beam with a velocity of 20 m s(-1) incident at different angles on the surface of a curved magnetic mirror. Focusing of the beam has been demonstrated and this induces an amplification up to a factor 3 of the fluorescence emitted by the atoms around the focal point. We deduced the shape of our reflector from the focal length measurements and show that the result is completely consistent with those obtained from the reflection of a red diode laser beam on the curved mirror.
A Stark decelerator can slow down polar molecules to very low velocities. When the velocities are very low, the number of cold molecules obtained is very small. In order to obtain a higher quantity of cold molecules, inspired by the work of Reens et al. [Phys. Rev. Res. 2 (2020) 033 095], we propose an alternative method of operating a Stark decelerator. Through the trajectory simulation of OH molecules in the decelerator, we find that the number of cold molecules can be greatly increased by one order of magnitude at both low and high final velocities on a Stark decelerator consisting of around 150 electrodes. This development is due to the improved longitudinal and the transverse focusing property provided by the new switching schemes and the high-voltage configurations on the decelerator unit.
With a Stark decelerator, beams of neutral polar molecules can be accelerated, guided at a constant velocity, or decelerated. The effectiveness of this process is determined by the six-dimensional (6D) volume in phase space from which molecules are accepted by the Stark decelerator. Couplings between the longitudinal and transverse motion of the molecules in the decelerator can reduce this acceptance. These couplings are nearly absent when the decelerator operates such that only every third electric-field stage is used for deceleration, while extra transverse focusing is provided by the intermediate stages. For many applications, the acceptance of a Stark decelerator in this so-called s=3s=3s=3 mode significantly exceeds that of a decelerator in the conventionally used (s=1)(s=1)(s=1) mode. This has been experimentally verified by passing a beam of OH radicals through a $2.6\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{m}$-long Stark decelerator. The experiments are in quantitative agreement with the results of trajectory calculations, and can qualitatively be explained with a simple model for the 6D acceptance. These results imply that the 6D acceptance of a Stark decelerator in the s=3s=3s=3 mode of operation approaches the optimum value, i.e., the value that is obtained when any couplings are neglected.
Cold, neutral hydroxyl radicals are Stark decelerated and efficiently loaded into a permanent magnetic trap. The OH molecules are trapped in the rovibrational ground state at a density of $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{6}\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ and temperature of 70 mK. Collision studies between the trapped OH sample and supersonic beams of atomic He and molecular D2{\mathrm{D}}_{2}D2​ determine absolute collision cross sections. The He-OH and ${\mathrm{D}}_{2}\mathrm{\text{\ensuremath{-}}}\mathrm{OH}$ center-of-mass collision energies are tuned from $60\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ to $230\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and $145\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ to $510\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, respectively, yielding evidence of quantum threshold scattering and resonant energy transfer between colliding particles.