A bright metastable atom source at 80 K

Abstract
We describe a high flux source of cold (80 K) metastable helium atoms. The source employs a direct current nozzle discharge which produces in excess of 10 15 atoms/steradian/s. Liquid nitrogen cooling of the discharge source yields atomic velocities below 900 ms −1 . Such a source has practical applications for experiments concerned with laser cooling and trapping of metastable helium atoms.