Greenberg J, Krohn OA, Bossert JA, Shyur Y, Macaluso D, Fitch NJ, Lewandowski HJ. Velocity-tunable beam of continuously decelerated polar molecules for cold ion-molecule reaction studies.
THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 2021;
92:103202. [PMID:
34717395 DOI:
10.1063/5.0057859]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2021] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Producing high densities of molecules is a fundamental challenge for low-temperature, ion-molecule reaction studies. Traveling-wave Stark decelerators promise to deliver high density beams of cold, polar molecules but require non-trivial control of high-voltage potentials. We have overcome this experimental challenge and demonstrate continuous deceleration of ND3 from 385 to 10 m/s, while driving the decelerator electrodes with a 10 kV amplitude sinewave. In addition, we test an alternative slowing scheme, which increases the time delay between decelerated packets of ND3 and non-decelerated molecules, allowing for better energy resolution of subsequent reaction studies. We characterize this source of neutral, polar molecules suitable for energy-resolved reaction studies with trapped ions at cold translational temperatures. We also propose a combined apparatus consisting of the traveling-wave decelerator and a linear ion trap with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer and discuss to what extent it may achieve cold, energy-resolved, ion-neutral reactions.
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