Physics
Scientific paper
May 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agusmsh22b..06k&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2002, abstract #SH22B-06
Physics
2794 Instruments And Techniques, 7837 Neutral Particles, 7894 Instruments And Techniques
Scientific paper
Energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) in space provide important information on many remote physical phenomena because the ENAs follow trajectories unaffected by magnetic and electric fields. ENAs are created by the charge exchange of plasma ions (confined to magnetic field lines) with ambient thermal atoms. The detection of the neutral atoms with an imaging spectrometer provides detailed information about the remote plasma source just as the imaging of photons provides information about remote luminous sources. Thus by detecting, analyzing, and imaging neutral atom fluxes, plasma processes can be studied remotely and globally. Despite recent successes, improvements are needed to make faint sources accessible as well as to improve the time, energy, and spacial resolution of the detectors. We have begun a program to test a new method for imaging neutral atoms which would be suitable for energies below 10 keV. The technique uses an alkali-vapor charge-exchange cell for high neutral to ion conversion. Neutral atoms are negatively ionized by extracting loosely bound electrons from the metal atoms on collision. To date our work has been on the containment of the alkali atoms in the cell using high speed rotating vanes. The purpose of the containment technique is to reduce the leakage of metal atoms to an acceptably low rate while allowing incident neutral atoms and converted ions above a few eV in energy to pass into and out of the cell efficiently. We will present preliminary results from the turbotrap, our device constructed to contain the alkali atoms. In addition, we have explored the possibility of increasing the efficiency of the charge exchange cell through the use of laser-excited atoms, and will present results of a radiation trapping model that estimates the effective lifetime of a resonant photon inside the cell.
Coplan Michael A.
Keller Warren J.
Lorenz J. E.
Ogilvie Keith. W.
Rozmarynowski P. S.
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