High-flux beam source for cold, slow atoms or molecules
Atomic Physics
2009-11-11 v2
Abstract
We demonstrate and characterize a high-flux beam source for cold, slow atoms or molecules. The desired species is vaporized using laser ablation, then cooled by thermalization in a cryogenic cell of buffer gas. The beam is formed by particles exiting a hole in the buffer gas cell. We characterize the properties of the beam (flux, forward velocity, temperature) for both an atom (Na) and a molecule (PbO) under varying buffer gas density, and discuss conditions for optimizing these beam parameters. Our source compares favorably to existing techniques of beam formation, for a variety of applications.
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0508100,
title = {High-flux beam source for cold, slow atoms or molecules},
author = {S. E. Maxwell and N. Brahms and R. deCarvalho and J. Helton and S. V. Nguyen and D. Patterson and J. M. Doyle and D. R. Glenn and J. Petricka and D. DeMille},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0508100},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
5 Pages, 4 figures