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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America

Quantum reflection: focusing of hyrodgen atoms with a hemispheric mirror

Jook T. M. Walraven

Published Jan 1, 1990• 0 citations

Abstract

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.

DOI: 10.1364/oam.1990.fr1

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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.

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 use a concave spherical mirror to focus at 18-mm-diam beam of H atoms down to 0.5 mm. The mirror consists of a fused-quartz substrate polished to optical precision and coated with a liquid${\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}^{4}$He film to obtain high reflectivity. The temperature dependence of the focused beam intensity enables us to study the influence of the dynamic surface roughness on the reflection of the H atoms. Both zero-point fluctuations and thermal excitations turn out to be of importance. A monolayer of

^{3}\mathrm{He}

does not significantly affect the results.

We formed the first ``atomic-optics'' beam of electron-spin-polarized hydrogen atoms using a quasiparabolic polished copper mirror coated with a hydrogen-atom-reflecting film of superfluid

^{4}\mathrm{He}

. The mirror was located in the gradient of an 8-T solenoidal magnetic field and mounted on an ultracold cell at 350 mK. After the focusing by the mirror surface, the beam was again focused with a sextupole magnet. The mirror, which was especially designed for operation in the magnetic field gradient of our solenoid, increased the focused beam intensity by a factor of about 7.5.

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.