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S. D. Hogan, Ch. Seiler, H. Schmutz, J. Agner and F. Merkt
Rydberg atoms and molecules possess very large electric dipole moments. Their translational motion can therefore be controlled by inhomogeneous electric field distributions. Following an early suggestion by Breeden and Metcalf [1], and a proof-of-principle experiment by Softley and his coworkers [2], we have developed an experiment which can be used to decelerate translationally cold samples of Rydberg atoms and molecules in supersonic beams to zero velocity in the lab frame, and load them in electrostatic traps [3,4,5]. The trapping times was found to be limited by collisions with the background gas and with atoms and molecules in the trailing edge of the gas pulse, and by radiative processes including fluorescence to the neutral ground state and transitions induced by blackbody radiation. To increase the trapping time, we have implemented a new deceleration and trapping scheme which enables us to deflect the Rydberg atoms from the beam axis during the deceleration process, and constructed a new Rydberg-deceleration and trapping apparatus that can be cooled to about 120 K. The first results obtained with this new scheme and the new apparatus will be presented. These results provide a better characterization of the sources of trap losses and enable a considerable increase of the trapping times compared to those obtained with the previous apparatus. [1] T. Breeden and H. Metcalf, Phys. Rev. Lett. 47, 1726 (1981) [2] S. R. Procter, Y. Yamakita, F. Merkt, and T. P. Softley, Chem. Phys. Lett. 374, 667 (2003) [3] E. Vliegen, H. J. Wörner, T. P. Softley, and F. Merkt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 033005 (2004) [4] S. D. Hogan and F. Merkt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 043001 (2008). [5] S. D. Hogan, Ch. Seiler, and F. Merkt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 123001 (2009) |
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