A new method to produce cold atomic hydrogen and deuterium beams

Abstract

A new method to produce cold atomic hydrogen and deuterium beams is described. This technique can be applied to development of internal polarized targets. The proposed scheme is to combine the low density beam of atoms from a dissociator of a conventional atomic-beam source with a supersonic carrier gas jet formed by a circular converging-diverging Laval nozzle surrounding the central one. A computer code for a realistic description of the formation of the atomic beam inside the supersonic carrier gas jet has been developed and applied for computer simulations of different nozzle geometries, various combinations of gas and carrier gas, and different mixtures of partly dissociated gas, like H−H2 and D−D2. The calculations indicate that with a carrier gas flow of about six times higher than the inner atomic beam, the central beam is confined, which should result in a better forward intensity and much lower beam temperature. An experimental study of this new method is in progress.