Electrostatic Surface Trap for Cold Polar Molecules with a Charged Circular Wire

We propose a novel scheme to trap cold polar molecules on the surface of an insulating substrate (i.e. a chip) by using an inhomogeneous electrostatic field, which is generated by the combination of a circular charged wire (a ring electrode) and a grounded metal plate. The spatial distributions of the electrostatic field from the above charged wire layout and its Stark potentials for CO molecules are calculated. Our study shows that when the voltage
applied to the wire is U=15kV, a ring radius is R=5mm, the thickness of the insulating substrate is b=5mm, and a wire radius is r=1mm, the maximum efficient trapping potential (i.e., as equivalent temperature) for CO molecules is greater than 141.7mK, which is high enough to trap cold polar molecules with a temperature of 50mK in the low-field-seeking states.