A buffer gas beam source for short, intense and slow molecular pulses

Abstract

Experiments with cold molecules usually begin with a molecular source. We describe the construction and characteristics of a cryogenic buffer gas source of CaF molecules. The source emits pulses with a typical duration of 240 $\mathrm{\mu }$s, a mean speed of about 150 m/s, and a flux of $5\times {10}^{10}$ molecules per steradian per pulse in a single rotational state.

Keywords:

• Buffer gas
• molecular beam
• radicals
• laser cooling molecules

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Publisher’s Note

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to John Dyne, Giovanni Marinaro and Valerijus Gerulis for technical assistance.

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

The underlying research materials for this article can be accessed at Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.995663) and may be used under the Creative Commons CCZero license.

1 Star-CCM+.

2 Sumitomo RDK-415D.

3 Stycast 2850 FT with 23 LV catalyst.

4 Alicat Scientific.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the EPSRC [grant number EP/I012044], [grant number EP/M027716] and [grant number EP/P01058X/1], and by the European Research Council under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ ERC [grant agreement 320789].