Department of Physics & Astronomy
Youngstown State University

Atomic Beam Physics Laboratory

What is the atomic beam lab?

The atomic beam laboratory consists of an extended vacuum system with a 15KeV ion source at one end. Highly-excited electronic states, called Rydberg states, of atoms and molecules are produced by focussing the ion beam into a gas cell and creating a neutral beam of excited atoms or molecules. Molecular hydrogen is the species most often studied.

The excited hydrogen molecules are then introduced to a high-powered CO₂ laser which selectively causes further excitation that can be monitored electronically. The selection occurs through the use of the Doppler effect by varying the angle of intersection of the laser beam and the excited hydrogen beam.

The apparatus was assembled and is often controlled by undergraduate students. The experience that YSU college students can get by working with the apparatus pictured is often only available to students working on master's or doctoral degrees.

What good is the atomic beam lab for students?

Participation in projects like the atomic beam lab are very useful learning experiences for the students as they learn physics. The fundamental experiments and problem solving skills developed on such a research project complement the class work and extends beyond the structured laboratory courses associated with the classes.

In addition, students often develop a sense of scientific maturity that comes with the investigation of previously undiscovered results. Students have gone on to careers in applied fields such as medical physics after their experiences in the atomic beam lab.

Why study Rydberg states?

The study of highly-excited Rydberg states of atoms and molecules presents a subtle technique for a determination of much information about the ions residing in the middle of the excited system. Such information for atomic systems can be used to extract the parameters of the atomic ion core, which are difficult to calculate and yet are useful in characterizing a broad range of excited states of atoms.

The same information found for simpler molecular systems has also been used to check the theoretical understanding of more complex molecular ions. The atomic and molecular beam work is categorized as fundamental, or basic, research and is currently funded by the Research Corporation of Tucson, Arizona.

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