Decelerating Neutral Dipolar Molecules

Abstract

It is experimentally demonstrated that a beam of neutral dipolar molecules can be efficiently decelerated with a time-varying electric field. A pulsed beam of neutral metastable CO molecules is slowed down from 225 m/s ( ${E}_{\mathrm{kin}}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}59{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$) to 98 m/s ( ${E}_{\mathrm{kin}}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}11{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$) upon passage through an array of 63 synchronously pulsed electric field stages.