Time dependence of liquid-helium fluorescence

D. N. McKinsey, C. R. Brome, S. N. Dzhosyuk, R. Golub, K. Habicht, P. R. Huffman, E. Korobkina, S. K. Lamoreaux, C. E. H. Mattoni, A. K. Thompson, L. Yang, and J. M. Doyle
Phys. Rev. A 67, 062716 – Published 26 June 2003
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Abstract

The time dependence of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) fluorescence following an ionizing radiation event in liquid helium is observed and studied in the temperature range from 250 mK to 1.8 K. The fluorescence exhibits significant structure including a short (10ns) strong initial pulse followed by single photons whose emission rate decays exponentially with a 1.6μs time constant. At an even longer time scale, the emission rate varies as “1/time” (inversely proportional to the time after the initial pulse). The intensity of the “1/time” component from β particles is significantly weaker than those from α particles or neutron capture on 3He. It is also found that for α particles, the intensity of this component depends on the temperature of the superfluid helium. Proposed models describing the observed fluorescence are discussed.

  • Received 7 January 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.67.062716

©2003 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

D. N. McKinsey1,*, C. R. Brome1, S. N. Dzhosyuk1, R. Golub2, K. Habicht2, P. R. Huffman3, E. Korobkina2, S. K. Lamoreaux4, C. E. H. Mattoni1, A. K. Thompson3, L. Yang1, and J. M. Doyle1

  • 1Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  • 2Hahn-Meitner Institut, Berlin-Wannsee, Germany
  • 3National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
  • 4Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544, USA

  • *Corresponding author. Present address: Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544. Email address: mckinsey@princeton.edu

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Vol. 67, Iss. 6 — June 2003

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