Velocity selected production of $2^{3}S$ metastable positronium

Abstract

Positronium in the $2^{3}S$ metastable state exhibits a low electrical polarizability and a long lifetime (1140 ns) making it a promising candidate for interferometry experiments with a neutral matter-antimatter system. In the present work, $2^{3}S$ positronium is produced - in absence of electric field - via spontaneous radiative decay from the $3^{3}P$ level populated with a 205nm UV laser pulse. Thanks to the short temporal length of the pulse, 1.5 ns full-width at half maximum, different velocity populations of a positronium cloud emitted from a nanochannelled positron/positronium converter were selected by delaying the excitation pulse with respect to the production instant. $2^{3}S$ positronium atoms with velocity tuned between $7\cdot 10^4$ m/s and $10\cdot 10^4$ m/s were thus produced. Depending on the selected velocity, a $2^{3}S$ production effciency ranging from $\sim 0.8\%$ to $\sim 1.7$, with respect to the total amount of emitted positronium, was obtained. The observed results give a branching ratio for the $3^{3}P$-$2^{3}S$ spontaneous decay of $(9.7\pm 2.7)\%$. The present velocity selection technique could allow to produce an almost monochromatic beam of $\sim 1\cdot 10^3$ $2^{3}S$ atoms with a velocity spread $<10^4$ m/s and an angular divergence of $\sim$ 50 mrad.

6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table