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Physics World

Hydrogen atoms look into a helium mirror

Nick Bigelow

Published Feb 1, 1990• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

In a recent series of elegant experiments a group at the University of Amsterdam have bounced cold (T≤400 mK) hydrogen atoms off a spherical mirror coated with superfluid helium-4 and used this to study the interactions between the H atoms and the 4He surface. In doing so J Berkhout and colleagues have approached the limit of ultra-low energy surface scattering described by 'quantum reflection' (1989 Phys. Rev. Lett. 63 1689).

DOI
10.1088/2058-7058/3/2/22

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In a recent series of elegant experiments a group at the University of Amsterdam have bounced cold (T≤400 mK) hydrogen atoms off a spherical mirror coated with superfluid helium-4 and used this to study the interactions between the H atoms and the 4He surface. In doing so J Berkhout and colleagues have approached the limit of ultra-low energy surface scattering described by 'quantum reflection' (1989 Phys. Rev. Lett. 63 1689).
We propose a new method for studying the reflection of a hydrogen atom from a superfluid-helium film. Starting from the narrow width of the reflected angular distribution recently found experimentally, we tentatively extrapolate to the extreme limit of low ripplon wave numbers in which the adiabatic or degenerate-internal-states approximation becomes valid. We obtain simple closed expressions for single- and multiple-ripplon processes, which do not require the integration of a Schr\"odinger equation for their evaluation and do not depend on the specific form of the potential.
We propose experiments with atomic hydrogen gas at ultra-low temperatures T < 100 μ K when the thermal energy of atoms is comparable with the changes of their potential energy in the Earth gravity field. At these conditions we suggest implementing a gravitational spectroscopy for studies of quantum properties of ultra-cold atomic hydrogen and its interactions with matter and gravity, similar to experiments with ultra-cold neutrons (Nesvizhevsky et al. Nature 415 , 297 2002 ). A magnetic trap used for reaching the Bose-Einstein Condensation (Fried et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 , 3811 1998 ) can be used for cooling a large number of H atoms below 1 mK. Evaporative cooling over the trap barrier allows effective cooling of the vertical degree of freedom of the trapped atoms. Releasing these ultra-slow atoms from the trap onto the cold surface of superfluid helium will allow studies of quantum bounces and stationary gravitational states of H atoms in the potential well created by this surface and the field of Earth gravity. Experimental study of properties of gravitational quantum states of hydrogen and quantum reflection of ultracold hydrogen from surface would be of major importance for designing similar experiments with antihydrogen, which are currently prepared in CERN.
A 350 mK helium‐4‐coated mirror was used to increase the intensity of an ultra‐cold electron‐spin‐polarized atomic hydrogen beam. The mirror uses the observed specular reflection of atomic hydrogen from a superfluid‐helium‐covered surface. A quasi‐parabolic polished copper mirror was installed with its focus at the 5 mm diameter exit aperture of an atomic hydrogen stabilization cell in the gradient of an 8 T solenoid field. The four‐coned mirror shape, which was designed specifically for operation in the gradient, increased the beam intensity focused by a sextupole magnet into a compression tube detector by a factor of about 7.5.
We studied the low-energy limit of atomsurface scattering and the phenomenon of quantum reflection by using hydrogen atoms and the surface of liquid helium. Measuring the specular reflectivity of a liquid-helium-covered hemispheric mirror for a beam of hydrogen atoms we obtained information on elastic and inelastic scattering phenomena. At 100 mK, reflectivities larger than 90% were achieved; this can be used to demonstrate atomic beam focusing. Approximately three-fourths of the atoms escaping from a small orifice in a cell were reflected back into the cell. The dominant inelastic processes at work here are surface absorption and direct inelastic scattering over small angles under excitation of surface ripplons (quantized capillary waves). Helium-covered surfaces maybe useful for atomic-beam manipulation of atomic hydrogen.