Experiments with Supersonic Beams as a Source of Cold Atoms

Figure 4.28: A cut-away CAD image of the 64 stage coilgun and vacuum chamber.
The red arrow indicates the supersonic beam trajectory. The first 49 of 64 coils are
shown, and only the first 32 of these are shown as clamped in place. The 89.77 cm
long water cooled aluminum support is held in place by an x-y translation stage at
either end of the vacuum chamber. The MCP used to detect the beam is shown at
the end of the slower, and is mounted on copper rods so that the MCP is closer to
the end of the slower that it would be if mounted directly to the translation stage
mounted feedthrough flange.
of scratching their insulation. Since the coils and the aluminum structure they are
mounted to are heavy, the support has a stiffening fin along its bottom to ensure that
the total deviation of the coils from a straight line is less than 100 μm. In addition,
the coil support is water cooled via a 1/4 inch square copper tube that is clamped in
place running down either side of the support. This provides a source of cooling for
the coils. Pictures of the aluminum coil support can be seen in figure 4.27.
The aluminum support structure is held in the vacuum chamber by two stages
which each allow the support to be moved in x and y. The stages are placed at
102