  We revisit the operation of the Stark decelerator and present a new,
optimized operation scheme, which substantially improves the efficiency of the
decelerator at both low and high final velocities, relevant for trapping
experiments and collision experiments, respectively. Both experimental and
simulation results show that this new mode of operation outperforms the schemes
which have hitherto been in use. This new mode of operation could potentially
be extended to other deceleration techniques.
