An intense atomic hydrogen source with a movable nozzle output

The fabrication and operation of a stable and intense source of atomic hydrogen from an easily movable nozzle is described in detail. The source uses a well-known air-cooled, extended cavity microwave source using molecular hydrogen, but conducts the dissociated atoms to the experimental interaction region via inert Teflon "spaghetti" tubing. A resulting collimated beam with a dissociation fraction exceeding 0.8 and with an average number density of atomic hydrogen of 6 x 10(12) cm(-3) at a distance of 2 mm from the exit of the source is obtained. This source of H is attractive, because it is movable and easily interfaced into beam-beam type experiments. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(98)02609-4]