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arXiv:0812.1923 · Faraday Discussions

Continuous guided beams of slow and internally cold polar molecules

Christian Sommer, Laurens D. van Buuren, M. Motsch, Sebastian Pohle, Josef Bayerl, Pepijn W. H. Pinkse, Gerhard Rempe

Published Jan 1, 2009• 44 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We describe the combination of buffer-gas cooling with electrostatic velocity filtering to produce a high-flux continuous guided beam of internally cold and slow polar molecules. In a previous paper (L.D. van Buuren et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 2009, 102, 033001) we presented results on density and state purity for guided beams of ammonia and formaldehyde using an optimized set-up. Here we describe in more detail the technical aspects of the cryogenic source, its operation, and the optimization experiments that we performed to obtain the best performance. The versatility of the source is demonstrated by the production of guided beams of different molecular species.

DOI
10.1039/b819726a

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We describe the combination of buffer-gas cooling with electrostatic velocity filtering to produce a high-flux continuous guided beam of internally cold and slow polar molecules. In a previous paper (L.D. van Buuren et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 2009, 102, 033001) we presented results on density and state purity for guided beams of ammonia and formaldehyde using an optimized set-up. Here we describe in more detail the technical aspects of the cryogenic source, its operation, and the optimization experiments that we performed to obtain the best performance. The versatility of the source is demonstrated by the production of guided beams of different molecular species.
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We realize a continuous, intense, cold molecular and atomic beam source based on buffer-gas cooling. Hot vapor (up to 600 K) from an oven is mixed with cold (15 K) neon buffer gas, and then emitted into a high-flux beam. The novel use of cold neon as a buffer gas produces a forward velocity distribution and low-energy tail that is comparable to much colder helium-based sources. We expect this source to be trivially generalizable to a very wide range of atomic and molecular species with significant vapor pressure below 1000 K. The source has properties that make it a good starting point for laser cooling of molecules or atoms, cold collision studies, trapping, or nonlinear optics in buffer-gas-cooled atomic or molecular gases. A continuous guided beam of cold deuterated ammonia with a flux of 3 × 10 11 ND 3 molecules s −1 and a continuous free-space beam of cold potassium with a flux of 1 × 10 16 K atoms s −1 are realized.
We present a method which delivers a continuous, high-density beam of slow and internally cold polar molecules. In our source, warm molecules are first cooled by collisions with a cryogenic helium buffer gas. Cold molecules are then extracted by means of an electrostatic quadrupole guide. For ND3{\mathrm{ND}}_{3}ND3​ the source produces fluxes up to $(7{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}_{4}^{7})\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{10}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\text{molecules}}/\mathrm{s}$ with peak densities up to $(1.0{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}_{0.6}^{1.0})\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{9}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\text{molecules}}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}$. For H2CO{\mathrm{H}}_{2}\mathrm{CO}H2​CO the population of rovibrational states is monitored by depletion spectroscopy, resulting in single-state populations up to $(82\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}10)%$.
We realize a continuous, intense, cold molecular and atomic beam source based on buffer-gas cooling. Hot vapor (up to 600 K) from an oven is mixed with cold (15 K) neon buffer gas, and then emitted into a high-flux beam. The novel use of cold neon as a buffer gas produces a forward velocity distribution and low-energy tail that is comparable to much colder helium-based sources. We expect this source to be trivially generalizable to a very wide range of atomic and molecular species with significant vapor pressure below 1000 K. The source has properties that make it a good starting point for laser cooling of molecules or atoms, cold collision studies, trapping, or nonlinear optics in buffer-gas-cooled atomic or molecular gases. A continuous guided beam of cold deuterated ammonia with a flux of 3×10\\(^{11}\\) ND\\(_{3}\\) molecules s\\(^{−1}\\) and a continuous free-space beam of cold potassium with a flux of 1×10\\(^{16}\\) K atoms s\\(^{−1}\\) are realized.
Slow molecules are efficiently extracted from a thermal reservoir by exploiting the interaction between polar molecules and the field provided by an electrostatic quadrupole guide. Electrostatic velocity filtering is widely applicable, which is demonstrated by producing guided beams of ammonia ND3, formaldehyde H2CO, and the water isotopologs H2O, D2O, and HDO. Ultraviolet depletion spectroscopy in a cold guided beam of formaldehyde makes the population in individual rotational states visible and testifies their key role in velocity filtering. Enhanced Rayleigh scattering into an optical cavity is investigated as an alternative non-destructive detection method for cold molecules. For various room-temperature gases, the observed enhancement is well described by interference of electromagnetic fields scattered into the resonator by a classical driven dipole oscillator.
We demonstrate and characterize a high-flux beam source for cold, slow atoms or molecules. The desired species is vaporized using laser ablation, then cooled by thermalization in a cryogenic cell of buffer gas. The beam is formed by particles exiting a hole in the buffer gas cell. We characterize the properties of the beam (flux, forward velocity, temperature) for both an atom (Na) and a molecule (PbO) under varying buffer gas density, and discuss conditions for optimizing these beam parameters. Our source compares favorably to existing techniques of beam formation, for a variety of applications.