A switched ring Stark decelerator for both light and heavy polar molecules

There is increasing interest in cold heavy polar molecular species for their applications in fundamental physics, such as the tests of the electron's electric dipole moment. Here we propose a switched ring Stark decelerator suitable for slowing both light and heavy polar molecules. Two typical polar molecular species, ND₃ and ²⁰⁵TlF, are employed to test the feasibility of our scheme with the help of trajectory calculation. Our proposed scheme is found to share many advantages with the state-of-the-art traveling wave decelerator, yet with relatively simple electronics and flexible operation modes. Sub-millikelvin molecular samples can be conveniently obtained in our decelerator using a combined operation mode. These monochromatic beams are ideal starting points for precise studies of molecular collision, cold chemistry and high-resolution spectroscopy.