Continuous centrifuge decelerator for polar molecules.

Producing large samples of slow molecules from thermal-velocity ensembles is a formidable challenge. Here we employ a centrifugal force to produce a continuous molecular beam with a high flux at near-zero velocities. We demonstrate deceleration of three electrically guided molecular species, CH3F, CF3H, and CF3CCH, with input velocities of up to 200 m s(-1) to obtain beams with velocities below 15 m s(-1) and intensities of several 10(9) mm(-2) s(-1). The centrifuge decelerator is easy to operate and can, in principle, slow down any guidable particle. It has the potential to become a standard technique for continuous deceleration of molecules.