Eur. Phys. J. D 38, 219-223 (2006)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2006-00028-0

Characterization of an oriented metastable atom source based on a magnetic hexapole

Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan

Corresponding author: ^a ohyama@chem.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp

Received: 2 August 2005
Revised: 18 November 2005
Published online: 8 February 2006

Abstract

The M_J-state selection of the metastable rare-gas (Rg*) was achieved by a magnetic hexapole that is composed of permanent magnets. The performance of the magnetic hexapole was examined by characterizing the velocity distribution and the spatial profile of the state selected Rg* beam. The characterization was carried out using position resolved time-of-flight analysis and its trajectory simulation. The magnetic hexapole enhanced the beam intensity at least one order of magnitude owing to the focusing effect. In addition, the magnetic hexapole was found to act as a good velocity selector.