Controlling the motion of cold molecules with deep periodic optical potentials

The application of optical forces has allowed unprecedented control over the motion of atoms leading to laser cooling and trapping1 and Bose–Einstein condensation2. More recently, the manipulation of cold neutral polar molecules using electrostatic fields has been used to create slow cold molecules in the laboratory frame3. Here, we report on the controlled manipulation of molecules using deep periodic optical lattice potentials (22 K) created by intense optical fields (1011 W cm−2). By using the oscillatory motion of nitric oxide molecules in these potentials, we have demonstrated rapid deceleration or acceleration in a molecular beam to well-defined velocities on a length scale of less than 535 nm. We reduce the kinetic energy of the molecules in a cold molecular beam by up to 50% in a single laser pulse (5.8 ns) demonstrating precise control of molecular-beam velocity and a new method for creating slow cold molecules using optical fields.