Positronium Cooling and Emission in Vacuum from Nanochannels at Cryogenic Temperature

Abstract

High formation yield and a meaningful cooled fraction of positronium below room temperature were obtained by implanting positrons in a silicon target in which well-controlled oxidized nanochannels (5-8 nm in diameter) perpendicular to the surface were produced. We show that by implanting positrons at 7 keV in the target held at 150 K, about 27% of positrons form positronium that escapes into the vacuum. Around 9% of the escaped positronium is cooled by collision with the walls of nanochannels and is emitted with a Maxwellian beam at 150 K. Because positronium quantum confinement limits the minimum achievable positronium energy, the tuning of the nanochannel's size is crucial for obtaining positronium gases in vacuum at very low temperature.