A study on the performance of an electrostatic focusing mirror for Rydberg positronium
Abstract
Recently, we demonstrated an electrostatic mirror that focuses a beam of Rydberg positronium atoms over a 6 m path to a 32 ± 1 mm FWHM diameter spot on a position sensitive detector. The mirror is comprised of 360 wires arranged in the shape of a nearly-cylindrical revolved truncated ellipse ~96 mm in radius, with potentials of equal and opposite magnitude applied to alternating wires to create a short-ranged electric field that decreases in magnitude exponentially with e-folding length = 0.53 mm. Here, we explore in detail the observed resolution and discuss the factors contributing to its broadening from the ideal point focus of a perfect embodiment of the mirror. Improvements to the design are considered, with the aim to achieve a mirror with a resolution of <0.5 mm, which is necessary for a proposed measurement of the gravitational deflection of positronium.
Graphical abstract
Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/0.1140/epjd/e2017-80625-4
DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2017-80625-4
Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.
Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.