Room temperature buffer gas beam of metastable state titanium atoms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the production of metastable titanium atom beams at room temperature using laser ablation into buffer gases, revealing high metastable state survival rates and providing insights into optimizing ablation cell design.

Contribution

It introduces a method to generate metastable titanium beams at room temperature via buffer gas laser ablation, with detailed analysis of quenching, yield, and beam properties.

Findings

Ti atoms in metastable state survive extensive buffer gas collisions

Yield depends on buffer gas species and pressure

Metastable beams have quantifiable brilliance and velocity distributions

Abstract

We produce beams of neutral titanium (Ti) atoms in their metastable $3d^{3}(^4F){4}s$ $a^5F_5$ state by laser ablation into He, N$_2$, and Ar buffer gases. The high temperatures realized in the ablation process populate the $a^5F_5$ level without the need for optical pumping. Remarkably, we observe that Ti atoms in the $a^5F_5$ state survive $1000$'s of collisions with He and Ar buffer gas atoms without being quenched to lower-energy states. We study the yield of Ti atoms when ablated into buffer gases of varying species and pressure, quantify quenching rates and diffusion cross sections based on simple models, and provide insight into optimal design parameters for an ablation cell. Using a $3.3\,$cm ablation cell with interchangeable exit apertures, we produce metastable atom beams and quantify their brilliance and velocity distributions as functions of buffer gas pressure.