Surface ionization of metastable calcium atoms
We report on an experimental study of surface ionization of metastable calcium atoms on a hot polycrystalline tungsten surface in vacuum. We implemented a hollow-cathode discharge to excite a fraction of calcium atoms in an atomic beam to metastable states and collected the resulting calcium ions. W...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
AIP Publishing LLC
2021-01-01
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| Series: | AIP Advances |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0005895 |
| Summary: | We report on an experimental study of surface ionization of metastable calcium atoms on a hot polycrystalline tungsten surface in vacuum. We implemented a hollow-cathode discharge to excite a fraction of calcium atoms in an atomic beam to metastable states and collected the resulting calcium ions. We observed that metastable calcium atoms are ionized with a significantly greater efficiency than ground-state atoms, and the results suggest that virtually every metastable atom impacting the hot surface is ionized. These results demonstrate the potential of metastable atom surface ionization as a means of enriching calcium isotopes for applications in medicine, metrology, and fundamental science. |
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| ISSN: | 2158-3226 |