https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20158404002
Fast metastable hydrogen atoms from H2 molecules: twin atoms
1 Laboratoire Aimé Cotton CNRS, Univ. Paris Sud 11, ENS Cachan, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
2 LOMC-FRE 3102-CNRS, Univ. du Havre, 25 rue Philippe Lebon, BP 540, 76058 Le Havre, France
3 Instituto de Física, UFRJ, Cx. Postal 68528, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941-972, Brazil
4 Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, BA 40210-340, Brazil
5 Departamento de Física, UFJF, Minas Gerais 36036-330, Brazil
6 C.F.E. T. Celso Suckow da Fonseca, 25620-003, Petrópolis, RJ, Brazil
Published online: 29 January 2015
It is a difficult task to obtain “twin atoms”, i.e. pairs of massive particles such that one can perform experiments in the same fashion that is routinely done with “twin photons”. One possible route to obtain such pairs is by dissociating homonuclear diatomic molecules. We address this possibility by investigating the production of metastable H(2s) atoms coming from the dissociation of cold H2 molecules produced in a Campargue nozzle beam crossing an electron beam from a high intensity pulsed electron gun. Dissociation by electron impact was chosen to avoid limitations of target molecular excited states due to selection rules. Detectors placed several centimeters away from the collision center, and aligned with respect to possible common molecular dissociation channel, analyze the neutral fragments as a function of their time-of-flight (TOF) through Lyman-α detection. Evidence for the first time observed coincidence of pairs of H(2s) atoms obtained this way is presented.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2015
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
