A new microwave discharge source for reactive atom beams

Abstract

A new atom beam source has been developed in which two special slotted line radiators have been used to couple 2.45 GHz microwave power to a simple pyrex glass discharge tube with a relatively large plasma volume. For hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine dissociation, fractions of up to about 0.95, 0.54 and 0.95, respectively, have been obtained with corresponding atom beam densities at the exit of 4*10¹³, 3.5*10¹² and 1.3*10¹² cm^-3. Atom beam fluxes of up to 0.34, 0.016 and 0.012 SCCM have been obtained for H, O and Cl respectively. The source is simple, cheap to construct, and has proved stable and reliable in operation.