Buffer gas cooling of a continuous CO molecular beam
Year: 2025
Authors: Gangwar A., Vedovello T., Merafina F.P., Insero G., Borri S., De Natale P., Santambrogio G., Sutradhar S.
Autors Affiliation: LENS, European Lab Nonlinear Spect, Via Nello Carrara 1, I-50014 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Florence, Dipartimento Fis & Astron, Via Sansone 1, I-50014 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Bari, Piazza Umberto I,1, I-70121 Bari, Italy; CNR, Ist Nazl Ott, Largo E Fermi 6, I-50125 Florence, Italy; Univ Florence, Dept Expt & Clin Biomed Sci Mario Serio, Viale G Pieraccini 6, I-50139 Florence, Italy; Ist Nazl Ric Metrol, INRIM, Via Nello Carrara 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
Abstract: We characterize a continuous buffer gas cooled source using CO molecules. We show results about the source performance considering different parameters, like gas flow rate, nozzle size, and internal cell volume. The beam contains 2.5 x 1014 molecules/(s sr) at about 160 m/s. Moreover, for two rotational states we observe an unexpected population distribution that we tentatively attribute to a lower temperature inside the cell. Considering the importance of buffer-gas cooling for experiments on ultracold molecules prepared with direct laser cooling, we believe that our work will improve this key first-stage cooling, accelerating the adoption of molecules in the framework of quantum technologies. (c) 2025 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement
Journal/Review: OPTICS EXPRESS
Volume: 33 (13) Pages from: 28164 to: 28176
More Information: European Partnership on Metrology (COMOMET, FunderID: 10.13039/100019599, 23FUN04); NextGenerationEU (IR0000016, D2B8D520, B53C22001750006, ID D2B8D520, CUP B53C22001750006).KeyWords: Cryogenic Beam; AtomsDOI: 10.1364/OE.560951
