Experimental Demonstration of a Controllable Electrostatic Molecular Beam Splitter

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a controllable electrostatic beam splitter for guided ND3 molecules with a single Y-shaped charged wire and a homogeneous bias field generated by a charged metallic parallel-plate capacitor. We study the dependences of the splitting ratio R of the guided ND3 beam and its relative guiding efficiency η on the voltage difference between two output arms of the splitter. The influences of the molecular velocity v and the cutting position L on the splitting ratio R are investigated as well, and the guiding and splitting dynamic processes of cold molecules are simulated. Our study shows that the splitting ratio R of our splitter can be conveniently adjusted from 10% to 90% by changing ΔU from -6 kV to +6 kV, and the simulated results are consistent with our experimental ones.