Sputtered‐Atom Beam Fills an Energy Gap

Neutral atomic beams in the energy range $1−50 eV$ can now be made with a new sputtering source developed by J. Politiek, P. K. Rol, J. Los and P. G. Ikelaar at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam. This energy range, higher than the thermal energies of oven sources and supersonic nozzles but below the lower limit of charge‐transfer ion neutralization, is not covered by other atom‐beam sources. The new technique fills the gap with an energy range and intensity suitable for chemical reaction and vibrational‐excitation work. Politiek, Rol and Los first mentioned their method at the Quebec conference on electronic and atomic collisions in 1965; the complete report appears in Rev. Sci. Inst. 39, 1147 (1968).