A high flux, liquid-helium cooled source of metastable rare gas atoms

We have developed a novel, high flux source of metastable rare gas atoms (helium, neon and argon) that uses liquid helium cooling to reduce the initial atomic velocity. Fluxes exceeding 1014 atoms/ster/s with He and Ne were obtained. With average velocities of ∼600 m/s for He and ∼300 m/s for Ne and Ar, this source will enable simpler, more compact beam lines for loading magneto-optical traps.