Dynamics of neutral molecules stored in a ring

Abstract

A decelerated beam of neutral ammonia molecules is injected into an electrostatic storage ring. Electrostatic lenses are used to map the emittance of the decelerator onto the acceptance of the ring. The tangential velocity spread of the package of molecules in the ring is set to less than $1\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}∕\mathrm{s}$. The package of molecules can be observed for more than 50 distinct round trips, corresponding to $40\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}$ in circular orbit and almost $0.5\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{s}$ storage time, sufficiently long for a first investigation of its transversal motion in the ring.