Surface ionization of metastable calcium atoms
Source abstract
Abstract
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.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications · Atomic and Molecular Physics · Neutrino Physics Research
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Center for Nonlinear Dynamics and Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, Texas 78712, USA
References (51)
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