A High-Flux, Liquid-Helium Cooled Source of Metastable Rare Gas Atoms

Abstract

We have developed a novel, high flux source of metastable rare gas atoms (helium, neon and argon) that uses liquid helium cooling to reduce the initial atomic velocity. Fluxes exceeding 1014 atoms/ster/s with He and Ne were obtained. With average velocities of ∼ 600 m/s for He and ∼ 300 m/s for Ne and Ar, this source will enable simpler, more compact beam lines for loading magneto-optical traps.