Prospects for precision measurements on ammonia molecules in a fountain

The recent demonstration of cooling and manipulation techniques for molecules offer new possibilities for precision measurements in molecules. Here, we present the design of a molecular fountain based on a Stark decelerated molecular beam. In this fountain, ammonia molecules are decelerated to a few meter per second, cooled to sub micro Kelvin temperatures and subsequently launched. The molecules fly upwards some 30 cm before falling back under gravity, thereby passing a microwave cavity twice - as they fly up and as they fall back down. The effective interrogation time in such a Ramsey type measurement scheme includes the entire flight time between the two traversals through the driving field, which is on the order of a 1/2 second. We present numerical simulations of the trajectories through the decelerator and estimate the expected count rate. We present an evaluation of the expected stability and accuracy for the inversion transition i