Rotor Assisted Molecular Cooling

Research Summary:

We have developed a novel method of producing molecular beams of slow molecules. A supersonic nozzle is mounted tangentially on the tip of a high-speed, hollow rotor. The rotor spins contrary to the flow velocity of the nozzle, allowing the rotor's tangential velocity to negate the supersonic beam's flow velocity. The centrifugal effect enhances the molecular beam expansion, resulting in colder molecules. The most recent research is aimed towards manipulating these molecules within inhonmogenous electric fields and measuring their velocity more accurately. The eventual goal of this study is to trap molecules and further cool them through evaporative cooling.

Latest (and first!) Reference:

"A Mechanical Means to Produce Intense Beams of Slow Molecules"
Manish Gupta and Dudley Herschbach
The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Volume 103, pp. 10670-10673
[Abstract]

For further details:
ITAMP Workshop on Trapping, Spectroscopy, and Collisions of Ultracold Molecules
July 1-3, 1999 
Talk by M. Gupta

Artistic antecedents: