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 (Ekin= 59 cm-1) to 98 m/s (Ekin= 11 cm-1) upon passage through an array of 63 synchronously pulsed electric field stages. © 1999 The American Physical Society.