Magneto-optical trapping of Stark-slowed metastable He atoms

We report on the first successful loading of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) with metastable He atoms from a Stark-slower. Thereby, deceleration of the atoms relies on laser-atom interaction in an inhomogeneous electric field. We show that the results obtained are comparable with early results from other groups achieved with a Zeeman slower. The Stark slower, which is able to fully control the final velocity of the atomic He beam, is the first step in achieving complete spin independent kinematic control based solely on electric fields