Measuring and manipulating the temperature of cold molecules trapped on a chip

Following Marx et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 243007 (2013)], we discuss the measurement and manipulation of the temperature of cold CO molecules in a microchip environment. In particular, we present a model to explain the observed and calculated velocity distributions. We also show that a translational temperature can be extracted directly from the measurements. Finally, we discuss the conditions needed for an effective adiabatic cooling of the molecular ensemble trapped on the microchip.