Experiments with Supersonic Beams as a Source of Cold Atoms
Experiments with Supersonic Beams as a Source of Cold Atoms
Experiments with Supersonic Beams as a Source of Cold Atoms
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5.2.3 Beam Creation and Detection<br />
Creating and detecting a supersonic beam <strong>of</strong> hydrogen is more challenging<br />
than for the neon and oxygen slowed in previous generations <strong>of</strong> the coilgun. Creating<br />
met<strong>as</strong>table neon requires a discharge, and the efficiency <strong>of</strong> met<strong>as</strong>table creation is likely<br />
around 10 −4 −10 −5 . However, detecting <strong>of</strong> the met<strong>as</strong>table atoms is possible <strong>with</strong> near<br />
unit efficiency using an MCP. Molecular oxygen is simple to seed into a beam and<br />
no state preparation is required. Detecting oxygen is more difficult however, and<br />
in the experiments described in chapter 4, oxygen is detected by an RGA, which<br />
h<strong>as</strong> a similar efficiency to the discharge. Hydrogen is particularly difficult to work<br />
<strong>with</strong> because it requires a state preparation (cracking molecular hydrogen into atomic<br />
hydrogen) similar to met<strong>as</strong>table neon, and hydrogen must also be excited or ionized<br />
in order to detect it.<br />
In this experiment, atomic hydrogen is created using the same discharge ap-<br />
paratus that is used to create met<strong>as</strong>table neon, described in section 4.4.1. Molecular<br />
hydrogen is mixed into a neon carrier at a ratio <strong>of</strong> 1:4, and the nozzle is run <strong>with</strong> a<br />
backing pressure <strong>of</strong> 50 psi. The near resonance between the neon met<strong>as</strong>table energy<br />
and the cracking energy <strong>of</strong> hydrogen plus the excitation energy <strong>of</strong> one hydrogen atom<br />
incre<strong>as</strong>es the efficiency <strong>of</strong> cracking <strong>with</strong> a discharge in the presence <strong>of</strong> neon [105].<br />
Detection is accomplished by a custom designed jumbo ionizer and quadrupole<br />
m<strong>as</strong>s spectrometer (Ardara Technologies). Hydrogen is ionized by electron bombard-<br />
ment and guided by ion optics into the quadrupole, which provides m<strong>as</strong>s filtering.<br />
The electron energy can be tuned to optimize the ionization process. Unfortunatly,<br />
the detected atomic hydrogen ions are produced via two channels, and only one <strong>of</strong><br />
these is desired. The first, and desired channel, is that atomic hydrogen produced by<br />
the discharge at the nozzle is ionized and detected. In the second channel, molecular<br />
hydrogen in the beam is cracked and ionized in the ionizer, creating a hydrogen ion<br />
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