Measurement of the Velocity Distribution of Neutral Atoms Using Laser-Induced Fluorescence

摘要

Laser-induced fluorescence has been used to measure the Doppler-shifted emission spectra in the atomic beam of gadolinium. The velocity distribution of gadolinium atoms that was deduced from these spectra shows good agreement with a Maxwellian distribution. Based on this good agreement, temperatures of the evaporating source have also been estimated. A new experimental method has been devised in our measurements, which can also be used for other multiline systems similar to gadolinium. This method allows one to effectively eliminate the distorting interference present in Doppler profile measurements for the multiline systems mentioned above.