UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Electrostatic trapping vibrationally excited Rydberg NO molecules

Rayment, MH; Hogan, SD; (2022) Electrostatic trapping vibrationally excited Rydberg NO molecules. Molecular Physics 10.1080/00268976.2022.2160846. (In press). Green open access

[thumbnail of Electrostatic trapping vibrationally excited Rydberg NO molecules.pdf]
Preview
Text
Electrostatic trapping vibrationally excited Rydberg NO molecules.pdf - Published Version

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Nitric oxide (NO) molecules travelling in pulsed supersonic beams have been laser photoexcited to long-lived Rydberg states in series converging to the lowest lying, v+=0, and first excited, v+=1, vibrational states in the ground electronic state of NO+. After excitation, the molecules were decelerated in the travelling electric traps of a chip-based Rydberg–Stark decelerator. Deceleration to rest in the laboratory-fixed frame of reference allowed subsequent electrostatic trapping before in situ detection by pulsed electric field ionisation. The decay rates of the molecules from the traps were measured for states with principal quantum numbers between 32 and 48. Comparison of the corresponding trap decay time constants, ranging from 245 to 400μs for states with v+=1, with those recorded for molecules in states with v+=0, allowed bounds to be placed on the vibrational autoionisation rates of the ℓ-mixed Stark states prepared in the experiments of <60 Hz.

Type: Article
Title: Electrostatic trapping vibrationally excited Rydberg NO molecules
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/00268976.2022.2160846
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/00268976.2022.2160846
Language: English
Additional information: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Rydberg states, cold molecules, electrostatic trapping, vibrational autoionisation
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10162496
Downloads since deposit
19Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item