Determination of the concentration of metastable helium atoms in an atmospheric-pressure glow discharge

The spatial distribution of the concentration of metastable helium atoms in the cathode region of an atmospheric-pressure glow discharge in helium is measured by the method of atomic-absorption spectroscopy. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 67, No. 4, pp. 530–533, July–August, 2000.     

Penning collisions of laser-cooled metastable helium atoms

We present experimental results on the two-body loss rates in a magneto-optical trap of metastable helium atoms. Absolute rates are measured in a systematic way for several laser detunings ranging from -5 to -30 MHz and at different intensities, by monitoring the decay of the trap fluorescence. The dependence of the two-body loss rate coefficient β on the excited state ( 2³ P ₂) and metastable state ( 2³ S ₁) populations is also investigated. From these results we infer a rather uniform rate constant K _sp = (1±0.4)×10^-7 cm³/s. Received 8 September 2000 and Received in final form 19 December 2000     

Production of a bose einstein condensate of metastable helium atoms

We recently observed a Bose-Einstein condensate in a dilute gas of ⁴He in the 2³S₁ metastable state. In this article, we describe the successive experimental steps which led to the Bose-Einstein transition at 4.7 μK: loading of a large number of atoms in a MOT, efficient transfer into a magnetic Ioffé-Pritchard trap, and optimization of the evaporative cooling ramp. Quantitative measurements are also given for the rates of elastic and inelastic collisions, both above and below the transition. Received 15 October 2001     

Quenching of metastable antiprotonic helium atoms in collisions with deuterium molecules

Quenching of metastable antiprotonic helium atoms in collisions with deuterium molecules has been studied using laser spectroscopy at CERN's new Antiproton Decelerator facility. The quenching cross-sections of the states (n, l )= (39, 36), (39, 37), and (39, 38) were determined from the decay rates of the states which were observed using the “deuterium-assisted inverse resonance” (DAIR) method. The results revealed a similar (n, l )-dependence of the quenching cross-sections as in the case of hydrogen but the values were smaller by a factor of ∼1.5. Received 6 July 2001     

Elastic scattering of electrons by helium atoms in high energy higher order Born approximation

The differential cross-sections forē-helium elastic scattering are calculated by using Yateshigh-energy higher order Born approximations, through 0 (K _i ^{Emphasis>−2} ) of the incident electron momentum, and comparisons have been made with the recent theoretical and experimental results.     

Space resolved density measurements of argon and helium metastable atoms in radio-frequency generated He-Ar micro-plasmas

Space resolved concentrations of helium He* (³S₁) and argon Ar* (³P₂) metastable atoms in an atmospheric pressure radio frequency micro-plasma jet were measured using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy. Even small absorptions down to 10^-4 could be measured using lock-in technique. The absolute density of metastable atoms densities at different rf-power, flow rate and gas mixture was deduced from measured absorption rates. Metastable concentrations range from 10⁹ to 10¹¹ cm^-3. Analysis of spectral profiles provided the pressure broadening coefficients of both metastable atoms by helium. The spatial distribution of metastable atoms in the plasma volume was obtained for various discharge conditions. Density profiles between the electrodes reveal the sheath structure and reflect the plasma excitation distributions in the discharge volume. It reveals the dominance of the α-mode discharge.     

An improvement of high voltage power supply for pseudospark discharge

An analysis of the high voltage power supply removing the Pulse Forming Line (PFL) is presented in this paper. This is an important improvement to make a desktop free electron laser with about one meter length instead of an original device length of 5.5 meters and to realize other applications of the new beam source of pseudospark discharge at high voltage of 200kV and a current of 2kA.     

小型高压重复频率微秒脉冲电源及其放电应用

针对实验产生等离子体的需求,研制了一种高压微秒脉冲电源,输出电压最大值为30kV,上升沿最小为300ns、脉宽0.5μs。测试结果表明电源的输出特性由负载决定,同时调节输入电压、触发脉宽可以改变电源的输出脉冲。研究了针-针放电负载时,电源重复频率以及针针间隙对于放电模式的影响,并通过研究电源输出随负载的变化来区别不同的放电模式,最后把电源成功应用于介质阻挡放电。     

Discharge characteristics of the DUHOCAMIS with a high magnetic bottle-shaped field

For the purpose of producing high intensity, multiply charged metal ion beams, the dual hollow cathode ion source for metal ions （DUHOCAMIS） was derived from the hot cathode Penning ion source combined with the hollow cathode sputtering experiments in 2007. To investigate the behavior of this discharge geometry in a stronger magnetic bottle-shaped field, a new test bench for DUHOCAMIS with a high magnetic bottle-shaped field up to 0.6 T has been set up at the Peking University. The experiments with magnetic fields from 0.13 T to 0.52 T have indicated that the discharge behavior is very sensitive to the magnetic flux densities. The slope of discharge curves in a very wide range can be controlled by changing the magnetic field as well as regulated by adjusting the cathode heating power; the production of metallic ions would be much greater than gas ions with the increased magnetic flux density; and the magnetic field has a much higher influence on the DHCD mode than on the PIG mode.     

Chemi-ionization and spin exchange upon collisions of metastable helium atoms with potassium atoms in the ground state

The spin exchange and chemi-ionization cross sections have been calculated for the metastable helium atom-potassium atom system in the ground state. The data on the spin exchange cross section in the system He(2³ S ₁)-K(4² S _1/2) have been obtained for the first time. The cross sections were calculated for the collision energies ranging from 2 × 10^?4 to 60 × 10^?4 au The chemi-ionization cross sections obtained have been compared with the data in the literature.     

Effect of optical pumping of metastable helium atoms on the operation of a helium-neon laser

Nonradiative destruction of the upper levels of helium has made possible optical pumping of metastable 2³S He atoms in a helium-neon laser. The changes in gain under various discharge conditions have been determined by introducing an extra loss, which has produced the same drop in generated power as extra pumping from a helium tube. The lifetime of the metastable 2³S He atoms has been measured as a function of the discharge current under a specific set of conditions.     

Triggering and guiding of high voltage discharge by using femtosecond laser filaments with different parameters

This paper demonstrates the triggering and guiding of the stationary high voltage (HV) discharges at 5--40 kV by using plasma filaments generated by femtosecond laser pulses in air. A significant reduction of the breakdown voltage threshold due to the pre-ionization of the air gap by laser filamentation is observed. The discharge experiments are performed by using laser pulses with different energy from 15--60 mJ. The electron density of filaments is detected by sonography method. The influence of the electron density of laser filaments on the triggering and guiding HV discharge is experimentally investigated. The results have shown that the behaviour of plasma filaments can strongly affect the efficiency of triggering and guiding HV discharge.     

Accurate determination of the scattering length of metastable helium atoms using dark resonances between atoms and exotic molecules

We present a new measurement of the s-wave scattering length a of spin-polarized helium atoms in the 2(3)S1 metastable state. Using two-photon photoassociation spectroscopy and dark resonances, we measure the energy E(nu)=14= -91.35+/- 0.06 MHz of the least-bound state nu = 14 in the interaction potential of the two atoms. We deduce a value of a=7.512+/-0.005 nm, which is at least 100 times more precise than the best previous determinations and is in disagreement with some of them. This experiment also demonstrates the possibility to create exotic molecules binding two metastable atoms with a lifetime of the order of 1 micros.     

Elastic scattering of electrons by helium and neon atoms

Summary  Partial and total cross-sections of electrons scattering by helium and neon atoms are calculated at eleven values of incident energy ranging from 0.1 a.u. to 1.1 a.u. The calculations are carried out via model potential (describing the electron target interaction). The iterative Green’s function partial-wave expansion technique was used. The comparison between our results and those obtained by other authors show significant agreement and supports our simple model scattering process.     

An exact solution of the renormalization-group equations for the mean field theory of stable and metastable states

An exact solution of the renormalization-group equations corresponding to the mean field theory of stable and metastable states is given which yields the correct free energies for these states. An unusual feature of this solution is that the renormalized Hamiltonian in the two-phase region becomes a multivalued function of the order parameter for all values of the length rescaling parameter beyond a certain critical value. This is closely related to the multivaluedness of the free energy as a function of magnetic field which characterizes the classical theory of metastable and unstable states. As a consequence of this multivaluedness, the trajectory flow in the space of coupling constants exhibits unusual bifurcation. This leads to difficulties in evaluating the metastable and unstable free energies by a trajectory integral of the spin-independent term, which can be resolved by an extension of the standard formalism.This work was supported by NSF grant #550-346-01 (JDG) and a U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science grant (KK and JDG).     

Electron emission from surfaces of alkali halides under the impact of metastable helium and neon atoms

Energy distributions of the electrons ejected from the evaporated film surfaces of LiF, LiCl, LiBr, NaF and NaCl by the impact of metastable He and Ne atoms have been measured. The observed distribution curves have two distinct structures: one peak is identified as the valence band structure caused by Penning ionization, while the other peak is ascribed to scattered electrons. The positions of the valence band peaks are shifted to lower ionization energy from the corresponding photoelectron peaks (by 0.1–1.5 eV depending on the substance). In contrast to the photoelectron spectra, the structure attributable to conduction bands appears only very weakly. The relative intensity of the peak caused by scattered electrons is either strong or weak depending on the combination of the metastable atom and the sample. The interpretation of this observation is that the scattered electron peak is enhanced when the energy of the metastable atom exceeds twice the band gap energy, i.e. when the electron—electron scattering of Penning electrons in the solid is feasible.     

Effect of high pressure on metastable and stable intermediate hcp phases formed in the Ag-17at%Ge alloy

Abstract

A metastable hexagonal close-packed (hcp) phase obtained by rapid quenching from the melt has been compressed to 5.7 GPa and annealed up to 1023 K. The axial ratios (c/a) of the hcp structure at the initial state, the stable state annealed under high pressure (5.7 GPa, 673 K) and the quenched state from high pressure and high temperature condition are 1.630, 1.635 and 1.628, respectively.

The volume reduction of the hcp structure by application of high pressure gives rise to increase the c/a ratio, which corresponds to an apparent reduction in the number of valence electrons per atom (e/a) in the Hume-Rothery alloys.     

Field ionization of free helium atoms: Correlation between the kinetic energy of ionized atoms and probability of their field ionization

In this paper the correlation between the kinetic energy of helium atoms and the probability of field ionization is investigated by exploiting the narrow velocity distribution of supersonic molecular beams. Field ionization measurements were carried out on supersonic helium beams at 298 K and 95 K corresponding to energies of about 65 meV and 20 meV, respectively, for the individual atoms. The field ionization was performed with a tungsten tip, radius of curvature 12 nm, kept at room temperature. The ionization probability was found to increase by about a factor 10 when the beam was cooled from 298 K to 95 K. The results presented in this paper are of importance for improving the understanding of field ionization and for the development of a new detector for helium and other molecular beams.     

Energy pooling to the level arising from collisions between pairs of metastable atoms

The energy-pooling rate coefficient for the process has been measured. The barium atoms were excited by a cw diode laser tuned to the frequency of the 791.3 nm intercombination line and the metastable atoms in the 6s5d state were produced due to radiative and collisional depopulation of the laser-excited 6s6p state. The measurements were performed at number densities of about and at 30 mbar argon as the buffer gas. Most of the barium ground state atoms in the excitation zone were transferred to the trip let metastable state at the laser pump power applied. The energy pooling rate coefficient was determined by comparing the fluorescence intensity of the barium 553.6 nm resonance line and the fluorescence intensity of the intercombination line 791.3 nm. In addition, the populations of the metastable atoms were probed with low intensity laser radiation from a single mode ring dye laser. The rate coefficient was found to be at . Received: 11 April 1997 / Revised: 24 September 1997 / Accepted: 10 December 1997     

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采用直流驱动等离子体激励器并通过气流场的碘线表征法研究了边界表面放电等离子体对低气压超音速氦气流场的作用。实验结果表明,边界表面放电等离子体的阴极区对以超音速流动的氦气的控制作用在符合实际工程条件的低气压下是有效果的;等离子体激励器的驱动电压越高,气流场的流动控制效果越好;定性观察表明激励器的阴极板的面积越大,实际作用区域越大,相应的实际控制效果越好。