Simulations of a Pulsed Ring Stark Decelerator for CH Molecules

Today’s molecular magneto‑optical traps (MOTs) are loaded using radiation‑pressure slowing of molecular beams, an inefficient bottleneck that limits trappable flux. To avoid this constraint, we aim to load a molecular MOT directly from a Stark‑decelerated beam using a pulsed ring Stark decelerator (PRSD) specifically tailored for CH. The CH radical is particularly well suited to Stark deceleration due to its ground‑state Λ‑doublet structure and low mass, while favorable vibrational branching on the X–A transition makes CH an attractive species for laser cooling and trapping. We will present simulations of PRSD performance over different geometries and timing sequences to identify regimes that maximize the decelerator’s phase‑space acceptance and slowing efficiency when decelerating CH from ~140 m/s to a few m/s prior to MOT loading.