’’Hot,’’metastable atom, molecular beam source

A molecular beam source for high-energy metastable atoms, utilizing a corona discharge, is described. It was designed for scattering experiments where accurate alignment of beam components is required. The metastable atoms produced in this source have kinetic energies from 5 to 74 eV dependent on the species and sufficient velocity selection to reveal structure in the differential cross sections. These high-energy metastables were previously reported as photons. When the molecular beam source was operated at 200–300 Torr, a supersonic beam of metastables was produced. An optimization of operating conditions produced a supersonic beam flux two orders of magnitude greater than previously reported.