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arXiv:1502.05376 · Journal of Instrumentation

Characterization of a metastable neon beam extracted from a commercial RF ion source

Ben Ohayon, Erik Wåhlin, Guy Ron

Published Mar 10, 2015• 13 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We have used a commercial RF ion-source to extract a beam of metastable neon atoms. The source was easily incorporated into our existing system and was operative within a day of installation. The metastable velocity distribution, flux, flow, and efficiency were investigated for different RF powers and pressures, and an optimum was found at a flux density of 2 × 10 12 atoms/s/sr. To obtain an accurate measurement of the amount of metastable atoms leaving the source, we insert a Faraday cup in the beam line and quench some of them using a weak 633 nm laser beam. In order to determine how much of the beam was quenched before reaching our detector, we devised a simple model for the quenching transition and investigated it for different laser powers. This detection method can be easily adapted to other noble gas atoms.

DOI
10.1088/1748-0221/10/03/p03009

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We have used a commercial RF ion-source to extract a beam of metastable neon atoms. The source was easily incorporated into our existing system and was operative within a day of installation. The metastable velocity distribution, flux, flow, and efficiency were investigated for different RF powers and pressures, and an optimum was found at a flux density of 2 × 10 12 atoms/s/sr. To obtain an accurate measurement of the amount of metastable atoms leaving the source, we insert a Faraday cup in the beam line and quench some of them using a weak 633 nm laser beam. In order to determine how much of the beam was quenched before reaching our detector, we devised a simple model for the quenching transition and investigated it for different laser powers. This detection method can be easily adapted to other noble gas atoms.
Metastable noble gas atomic beam is widely used in atomic and molecular physics studies.Using radio-frequency discharge and transverse laser cooling, we produced a well-collimated intense meta-stable Krypton beam.Numerical simulation is also used to analyze the trajectories of atoms in an optic field produced by transverse cooling laser beams.The charactersisticl of the atomic beam are determined by measuring the laser induced fluorescence.The atomic beam flux measured at 230 cm downstream is 1.61016 atoms/(s*sr), which is enhanced by two orders of magnitude.The Kr atoms are finally trapped in a magneto-optic trap.A total of 1.31010 meta-stable 84Kr atoms can be simultaneously trapped with a loading rate of 3.01011 atoms/s.The same setup is also successfully used to obtain a bright metastable atomic argon beam and trap.
An apparatus has been constructed to produce well-characterized fast beams of rare gas metastable atoms for subsequent scattering experiments. Optical pumping by a collinear laser beam can be used to selectively remove either of the two metastable components from the beam. Laser-induced-fluorescence (LIF) techniques can be used to determine the original beam composition and to monitor composition changes resulting from optical absorption. These techniques have been successfully applied to a metastable neon beam produced by near-resonant charge transfer of Ne+ in Na. A simple model has been developed which accurately reproduces the observed LIF lineshape generated by tuning the laser throught the optical transition frequency.
This thesis presents an in-depth study into the characterization and enhancement of a metastable neon laser cooled and trapped atomic beam. The apparatus consists of a standard Zeeman slowed atomic beam loaded into a magneto-optical trap and was designed for applications to electron scattering experiments and photoionization. The efficiency of the metastable neon atomic source was investigated to determine the ideal cathode type for maximum metastable production and optimal atomic beam velocity haracteristics. A series of characterization measurements were performed on the MOT, and the trap volume and population were investigated for a range of trapping and slowing laser intensities and detunings, together with the MOT and Zeeman slower magnetic fields. The volume measurements were compared to standard Doppler theory and it was found that the Doppler model inadequately explained the trap behaviour. It was found that the MOT population characteristics were governed by two processes: two-body losses that limit the trap population at high densities, and the efficiency of the atom capture process which limits the operational range of the MOT over the various parameters. The trap temperature was determined to be 1.3mK via a time-of-flight technique. This was nearly twice that predicted by Doppler theory and the lack of agreement once again suggests the inadequacies in the Doppler theory to correctly model the experiment. The application of the MOT to the photoionization cross-section measurement of the (2p53p)3D3 state of neon was investigated. The MOT decay technique was utilized to measure cross-section values of o351 = 2.9+0.2 -0.3 x 10 -18cm2 and o363 = 3.1 +0.3 -0.4 x 10-18cm2 at the wavelengths of 351nm and 363nm respectively. This is an increase in accuracy of around a factor of five from previous measurements and it was found that the results agreed well with the values predicted by current theories.
Summary form only given. The understanding of the interaction of ultracold atoms will be substantially extended by the experimental study of ultracold non-alkaline systems. Due to the special internal structure and the high internal energy, metastable noble gases will play a crucial role. The objective of our work is to attain a detailed study of the atomic structure and the interactions in a gas of ultracold metastable neon atoms. Ensembles of high phase space density and, if possible, Bose condensates shall be achieved. The elementary pair interaction as well as the collective interactions are to be characterized. Of special interest is Penning ionization as it is the main loss process in dense metastable atom traps. The degree of its suppression in a spin polarized gas will strongly affect the feasibility of a quantum-degenerate system of metastable atoms. In addition, metastable noble gas atoms will allow the implementation of novel diagnostics for the investigation of Bose condensates due to their high detectability. We want to make use of this advantage in order to investigate higher order correlation functions and study the laser-like behavior of Bose condensates and atom-laser outputs. We have achieved loading of 4/spl times/10/sup 8/ atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) and after efficient spin polarization of 2.5 /spl times/ 10/sup 8/ atoms in a Ioffe-Pritchard-type magnetic trap. We present a precision measurement of the lifetime of the 3s[3/2]/sub 2/-metastable state of neon which we could determine to 14.70(13)s. We report on the status of the determination of the elastic scattering rate, the rates of Penning ionization for spin-polarized and non-spin-polarized atom samples, and the implementation of evaporative cooling.
The study of collisions between excited atoms requires high-intensity atomic beams to achieve detector signals of sufficient strength. Producing large densities of excited rare gas atoms R is especially difficult, since with conventional sources metastable atoms R make up a tiny fraction of ≈10-5 of the total beam flux. In such cases, 'brightening' the beam is the only way to achieve a sufficiently large flux. We have followed a scheme proposed by Metcalf to brighten an atomic beam of neon. The setup employs laser cooling on the Ne((3s)3P2 → (3p)3D3) cycling transition, and consists of three stages. First, we collimate all atoms emerging from a discharge source within a half-angle θ0 = 100 mrad. Second, the collimated beam is focused to a point. Third, the now converging beam is re-collimated to form a thin and bright atomic beam.