Open AccessPreparation of Translationally Cold Neutral Molecules
Author(s) -
Giulia Di Domenicantonio,
Benjamin Bertsche,
Andreas Osterwalder
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
chimia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.387
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2673-2424
pISSN - 0009-4293
DOI - 10.2533/chimia.2011.725
Subject(s) - molecule , chemical polarity , bent molecular geometry , polar , electrostatics , chemical physics , thermal , centrifugal force , chemistry , atomic physics , physics , mechanics , thermodynamics , flow (mathematics) , organic chemistry , astronomy
Efforts at EPFL to obtain translationally cold neutral molecules are described. Active deceleration of polar molecules is performed by confining the molecules in moving three-dimensional electrostatic traps, and by appropriately choosing the velocity of those traps. Alternatively, cold molecules can be obtained by velocity filtering. Here, the velocity of the molecules is not changed, but instead the cold molecules are extracted from a thermal sample by using the competition between the electrostatic force and the centrifugal force inside a bent electrostatic guide for polar molecules.