Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 235
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2012-30017-5

Regular Article

Deceleration and trapping of heavy diatomic molecules using a ring-decelerator

Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut, Zernikelaan 25, 9747 AA Groningen, The Netherlands

^a e-mail: s.hoekstra@rug.nl

Received: 9 January 2012
Received in final form: 15 June 2012
Published online: 6 September 2012

Abstract

We present an analysis of the deceleration and trapping of heavy diatomic molecules in low-field seeking states by a moving electric potential. This moving potential is created by a “ring-decelerator”, which consists of a series of ring-shaped electrodes to which oscillating high voltages are applied. Particle trajectory simulations have been used to analyze the deceleration and trapping efficiency for a group of molecules that is of special interest for precision measurements of fundamental discrete symmetries. For the typical case of the SrF molecule in the (N, M) = (2, 0) state, the ring-decelerator is shown to outperform traditional and alternate-gradient Stark decelerators by at least an order of magnitude. If further cooled by a stage of laser cooling, the decelerated molecules allow for a sensitivity gain in a parity violation measurement, compared to a cryogenic molecular beam experiment, of almost two orders of magnitude.