Zeeman deceleration of electron-impact-excited metastable helium atoms

Dulitz, Katrin; Tauschinsky, Atreju; Softley, T. P.

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/17/3/035005

Cited by 15 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…While not the first instance of Zeeman deceleration of this species [48], helium was chosen for two main reasons. First, He* has a small mass-to-magneticmoment ratio (2.0 amu/μ B ) with a large Zeeman shift, which allows for effective manipulation of the atom with magnetic fields.…”

Section: B Metastable Helium Beammentioning

confidence: 99%

Multistage Zeeman decelerator for molecular-scattering studies

Cremers¹,

Chefdeville²,

Janssen³

et al. 2017

Phys. Rev. A

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We present a concept for a multistage Zeeman decelerator that is optimized particularly for applications in molecular beam scattering experiments. The decelerator consists of a series of alternating hexapoles and solenoids, that effectively decouple the transverse focusing and longitudinal deceleration properties of the decelerator. It can be operated in a deceleration and acceleration mode, as well as in a hybrid mode that makes it possible to guide a particle beam through the decelerator at constant speed. The deceleration features phase stability, with a relatively large six-dimensional phase-space acceptance. The separated focusing and deceleration elements result in an unequal partitioning of this acceptance between the longitudinal and transverse directions. This is ideal in scattering experiments, which typically benefit from a large longitudinal acceptance combined with narrow transverse distributions. We demonstrate the successful experimental implementation of this concept using a Zeeman decelerator consisting of an array of 25 hexapoles and 24 solenoids. The performance of the decelerator in acceleration, deceleration, and guiding modes is characterized using beams of metastable helium ( 3 S) atoms. Up to 60% of the kinetic energy was removed for He atoms that have an initial velocity of 520 m/s. The hexapoles consist of permanent magnets, whereas the solenoids are produced from a single hollow copper capillary through which cooling liquid is passed. The solenoid design allows for excellent thermal properties and enables the use of readily available and cheap electronics components to pulse high currents through the solenoids. The Zeeman decelerator demonstrated here is mechanically easy to build, can be operated with cost-effective electronics, and can run at repetition rates up to 10 Hz.

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Section: B Metastable Helium Beammentioning

confidence: 99%

Multistage Zeeman decelerator for molecular-scattering studies

Cremers¹,

Chefdeville²,

Janssen³

et al. 2017

Phys. Rev. A

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“…Traditionally, metastable helium atoms have also been popular test systems for new laser cooling schemes, e.g., for sub-Doppler cooling by velocity-selective coherent population trapping [8,9], for white-light cooling [10] and for bichromatic cooling [11][12][13]. The velocity of metastable helium atoms in a supersonic beam has also been successfully manipulated using the Zeeman deceleration technique which does not rely on laser cooling [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical Quenching of Metastable Helium Atoms using Excitation to the 4P State

et al. 2019

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Discharge and electron-impact excitation lead to the production of metastable helium atoms in two metastable states, 2 1 S 0 and 2 3 S 1 . However, many applications require pure beams of one of these species or at least a detailed knowledge of the relative state populations. In this paper, we present the characterization of an original experimental scheme for the optical depletion of He(2 1 S 0 ) in a supersonic beam which is based on the optical excitation of the 4 1 P 1 ← 2 1 S 0 transition at 397 nm using a diode laser. From our experimental results and from a comparison with numerical calculations, we infer a near unit depletion efficiency at all beam velocities under study (1070 m/s ≤ v ≤ 1750 m/s). Since the technique provides a direct means to determine the singlet-to-triplet ratio in a pulsed supersonic helium beam, our results show that the intrabeam singlet-to-triplet ratio is different at the trailing edges of the gas pulse.

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“…17,18 The improved beam profile makes the NPV-based discharge source an excellent candidate for deceleration and trapping experiments. 7,25,[30][31][32][33] Further improvement of the discharge electronics by implementing an active switching-off function would allow an even shorter discharge duration and therefore provides a better definition of the temporal and spatial properties of the generated OH beam. FIG.…”

Section: Oh Beam Profilementioning

confidence: 99%

Cold and intense OH radical beam sources

Ploenes¹,

Haas

Zhang

et al. 2016

Review of Scientific Instruments

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We present the design and performance of two supersonic radical beam sources: a conventional pinhole-discharge source and a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) source, both based on the Nijmegen pulsed valve. Both designs have been characterized by discharging water molecules seeded in the rare gases Ar, Kr, or Xe. The resulting OH radicals have been detected by laser-induced fluorescence. The measured OH densities are (3.0 ± 0.6) × 10 11 cm -3 and (1.0 ± 0.5) × 10 11 cm -3 for the pinholedischarge and DBD sources, respectively. The beam profiles for both radical sources show a relative longitudinal velocity spread of about 10%. The absolute rotational ground state population of the OH beam generated from the pinhole-discharge source has been determined to be more than 98%. The DBD source even produces a rotationally colder OH beam with a population of the ground state exceeding 99%. For the DBD source, addition of O 2 molecules to the gas mixture increases the OH beam density by a factor of about 2.5, improves the DBD valve stability, and allows to tune the mean velocity of the radical beam. Published by AIP Publishing. [http://dx

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Zeeman deceleration of electron-impact-excited metastable helium atoms

Cited by 15 publications

References 42 publications

Multistage Zeeman decelerator for molecular-scattering studies

Multistage Zeeman decelerator for molecular-scattering studies

Optical Quenching of Metastable Helium Atoms using Excitation to the 4P State

Cold and intense OH radical beam sources

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