A Source of a Seeded Supersonic Beam of Alkali Halide Molecules

The design of a source of a seeded supersonic beam of alkali halide molecules or other vaporized solids is described. At a carrier gas (hydrogen or helium) stagnation pressure of 0.5–5 atm, a stagnation temperature of 1000 K, and a partial seed species pressure of 10–2 Torr, the intensity of the salt beam was 1014 sr–1 s–1 and the energy of molecules in the beam varied from 5.5 to 7.5 eV for a mixture with helium and from 7.5 to 15.5 eV for a mixture with hydrogen. The modular design of the source provides the easy replacement of its functional units.