Generation of Thermal Muonium in Vacuum

A. P. Mills, Jr; J. Imazato; S. Saitoh; A. Uedono; Y. Kawashima; K. Nagamine

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.1463

Generation of Thermal Muonium in Vacuum

A. P. Mills, Jr., J. Imazato, S. Saitoh, A. Uedono, Y. Kawashima, and K. Nagamine

Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 1463 – Published 7 April 1986

Abstract

We find that thermal-energy muonium atoms are emitted from a clean hot tungsten foil in which positive muons are stopping near the surface. The temperature dependence of the thermal-muonium signal yields a surprisingly low activation energy of 0.66(4) eV, suggesting that we are observing the thermionic emission of muonium from the solid. The total muonium yield at 2300 K is about 0.04 per stopped muon of 23 MeV/c initial muon momentum. A number of new experiments should be possible using this unique source of thermal muonium in vacuum.

Received 30 December 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.1463

Authors & Affiliations

A. P. Mills, Jr.¹, J. Imazato², S. Saitoh³, A. Uedono⁴, Y. Kawashima², and K. Nagamine²

¹AT & T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974
²Meson Science Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
³Department of Industrial Chemistry, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
⁴Institute of Materials Science, University of Tsukuba, Sakura-mura, Ibaraki, Japan