Noble Gas Condensation in Controlled-Expansion Beam Sources

Abstract

Over the past several years an investigation into the gas-dynamic and nucleation properties of very small Laval nozzles has been undertaken in our laboratory due to their great potential use of sources for cluster beams. A series of nozzles designed specifically for helium carrier gas expansions has been tested in our molecular beam apparatus and used to study the condensation of the noble gases, Ar, Kr, and Xe. The goal of producing cluster beams with densities high enough to carry out high energy electron diffraction experiments has been attained for these gases with cluster sizes in the range of 100-400 atoms per cluster. The onset of nucleation appears to correlate with the product of nozzle diameter, starting pressure, and atomic potential well depth, i.e., p sub O D sub O c/k.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1981
Accession Number
ADA098873

Entities

People

  • Dian Cheng Shi
  • Gilbert D. Stein
  • Sang Soo Kim

Organizations

  • Northwestern University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Condensation
  • Diffraction
  • Electron Diffraction
  • Gas Dynamics
  • Gases
  • High Energy
  • Laval Nozzles
  • Molecular Beams
  • Noble Gases
  • Nozzles
  • Nucleation
  • Physics Laboratories
  • Rarefied Gas Dynamics
  • Rarefied Gases

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Astronomy/Astrophysics
  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics