Multistage Zeeman deceleration of hydrogen atoms

Vanhaecke, Nicolas; Meier, U. Thomas; Andrist, M.; Meier, Beat H.; Merkt, Frédéric

doi:10.1103/physreva.75.031402

Cited by 219 publications

(195 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…A variety of solenoid designs have been implemented successfully in multistage Zeeman decelerators before. Merkt and co-workers utilized tightly wound solenoids of insulated copper wire that were thermally connected to water-cooled ceramics [44]. Later, FIG.…”

Section: A Multistage Zeeman Deceleratormentioning

confidence: 99%

Multistage Zeeman decelerator for molecular-scattering studies

Cremers¹,

Chefdeville²,

Janssen³

et al. 2017

Phys. Rev. A

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We present a concept for a multistage Zeeman decelerator that is optimized particularly for applications in molecular beam scattering experiments. The decelerator consists of a series of alternating hexapoles and solenoids, that effectively decouple the transverse focusing and longitudinal deceleration properties of the decelerator. It can be operated in a deceleration and acceleration mode, as well as in a hybrid mode that makes it possible to guide a particle beam through the decelerator at constant speed. The deceleration features phase stability, with a relatively large six-dimensional phase-space acceptance. The separated focusing and deceleration elements result in an unequal partitioning of this acceptance between the longitudinal and transverse directions. This is ideal in scattering experiments, which typically benefit from a large longitudinal acceptance combined with narrow transverse distributions. We demonstrate the successful experimental implementation of this concept using a Zeeman decelerator consisting of an array of 25 hexapoles and 24 solenoids. The performance of the decelerator in acceleration, deceleration, and guiding modes is characterized using beams of metastable helium ( 3 S) atoms. Up to 60% of the kinetic energy was removed for He atoms that have an initial velocity of 520 m/s. The hexapoles consist of permanent magnets, whereas the solenoids are produced from a single hollow copper capillary through which cooling liquid is passed. The solenoid design allows for excellent thermal properties and enables the use of readily available and cheap electronics components to pulse high currents through the solenoids. The Zeeman decelerator demonstrated here is mechanically easy to build, can be operated with cost-effective electronics, and can run at repetition rates up to 10 Hz.

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Section: A Multistage Zeeman Deceleratormentioning

confidence: 99%

Multistage Zeeman decelerator for molecular-scattering studies

Cremers¹,

Chefdeville²,

Janssen³

et al. 2017

Phys. Rev. A

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“…This could be seen as a way of extending the range of energies available to collision experiments involving the halogen atoms, below the minimum threshold energy of atomic molecular beams created by thermal decomposition of the molecular halogens 42 , though, clearly with lower number densities. Although slow halogen atoms could also be obtained using the Zeeman deceleration technique 5 , the current setup has the advantage of being much more simple to construct.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Presently, suitable laser systems are not available in the VUV region for laser cooling. Alternative methods for producing cold atoms, including surface-contact cooling (for H atoms only 4 ), Zeeman deceleration 5,6 , and buffer gas cooling 7 have been applied to various species and recently the formation of a BEC of metastable helium atoms has been demonstrated using a combination of buffer gas cooling and evaporative cooling 8 . Some of these techniques could in principle be applied to halogen atoms too, but there have been no such studies to date.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Production of cold bromine atoms at zero mean velocity by photodissociation

Doherty

Bell

Softley

et al. 2011

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.

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The production of a translationally cold (T o 1 K) sample of bromine atoms with estimated densities of up to 10 8 cm À3 using photodissociation is presented. A molecular beam of Br 2 seeded in Kr is photodissociated into Br + Br* fragments, and the velocity distribution of the atomic fragments is determined using (2 + 1) REMPI and velocity map ion imaging. By recording images with varying delay times between the dissociation and probe lasers, we investigate the length of time after dissociation for which atoms remain in the laser focus, and determine the velocity spread of those atoms. By careful selection of the photolysis energy, it is found that a fraction of the atoms can be detected for delay times in excess of 100 ms. These are atoms for which the fragment recoil velocity vector is directly opposed and equal in magnitude to the parent beam velocity leading to a resultant lab frame velocity of approximately zero. The FWHM velocity spreads of detected atoms along the beam axis after 100 ms are less than 5 ms À1 , corresponding to temperatures in the milliKelvin range, opening the possibility that this technique could be utilized as a slow Br atom source.

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“…The technique presented here has the desirable feature of being all optical, circumventing the need for complex in vacuo components for cold molecule generation. For this reason we anticipate that it will be sufficiently flexible to be used in concert with other techniques that have been developed over the past 15 years to produce ultracold molecules [54,[56][57][58][59]. Finally, we note that another application of this optical force and velocity-cooling process is that it can also be used to accelerate a sample of cold atoms or molecules to large velocities and produce narrow distributions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuous all-optical deceleration and single-photon cooling of molecular beams

et al. 2014

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Ultracold molecular gases are promising as an avenue to rich many-body physics, quantum chemistry, quantum information, and precision measurements. This richness, which flows from the complex internal structure of molecules, makes the creation of ultracold molecular gases using traditional methods (laser plus evaporative cooling) a challenge, in particular due to the spontaneous decay of molecules into dark states. We propose a way to circumvent this key bottleneck using an alloptical method for decelerating molecules using stimulated absorption and emission with a single ultrafast laser. We further describe single-photon cooling of the decelerating molecules that exploits their high dark state pumping rates, turning the principal obstacle to molecular laser cooling into an advantage. Cooling and deceleration may be applied simultaneously and continuously to load molecules into a trap. We discuss implementation details including multi-level numerical simulations of strontium monohydride (SrH). These techniques are applicable to a large number of molecular species and atoms with the only requirement being an electric dipole transition that can be accessed with an ultrafast laser.

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Multistage Zeeman deceleration of hydrogen atoms

Cited by 219 publications

References 10 publications

Multistage Zeeman decelerator for molecular-scattering studies

Multistage Zeeman decelerator for molecular-scattering studies

Production of cold bromine atoms at zero mean velocity by photodissociation

Continuous all-optical deceleration and single-photon cooling of molecular beams

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