Abstract
A new design for a hydrogen atom target is described. An H2 dissociation of 96±4% is obtained for pressures near 3×10‐5 Torr and temperatures of about 2400 K. The scattering cell proper is uniformly heated by radiation from a separate resistance heater element. Magnetic field effects are eliminated by gating the 700 A heater current out of phase with the incident particle beam. A method for absolute measurement of the dissociation fraction is described. Target impurities other than H2 are estimated to be less than 0.2%.