EXCITED STATE POPULATIONS IN A NEURAL PARTICLE BEAM

EFFECTIVE PLANNING OF DIAGNOSTICS FOR WEAPONIZED NEUTRAL PARTICLE BEAMS (NPBS) REQUIRES EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF THE EXCITED STATE DENSITIES IN THE H(O) BEAM AS IT EMERGES FROM ITS CHARGE-STRIPPING VOLUME. WE PROPOSE OPTICAL SUBSTITUTION AS THE MEANS OF ABSOLUTE CALIBRATION OF A PASSIVE RADIOMETRIC SYSTEM TO MEASURE THE FLUXES OF H(O) PARTICLES IN ELECTRONICALLY EXCITED STATES. AN ATOMIC HYDROGEN EMISSION LINE SOURCE WHICH EMULATES THE GEOMETRY AND SPECTRUM OF AN NPB IS PROPOSED AS THE CALIBRATED RADIATION SOURCE. DESIGN OF THE OPTICAL SYSTEM WILL FOLLOW FROM THE ANALYSIS OF THE EXPECTED RADIATION YIELDS FROM EXCITED STATES AS A FUNCTION OF THE NPB'S PARAMETERS. CASCADE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EXCITED STATES WILL BE ESTIMATED FROM THE APPROPRIATE SET OF COUPLED RATE EQUATIONS. THE IMPORTANT PERTURBATION OF ALTERATION OF SUBLEVEL DISTRIBUTION BY ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS ON THE CASCADE RATE EQUATIONS WILL BE INVESTIGATED. THE NECESSARY MEASUREMENTS AND DATA EVALUATION PROCEDURE WILL BE FORMULATED ACCORDING TO THE CASCADE ANALYSIS IN ORDER TO WORK BACK FROM THE ORIGINAL MEASUREMENTS (AT SOME DISTANCE DOWN THE BEAM PATH) TOWARDS THE BEAM NEUTRALIZATION REGION TO DETERMINE THE INITIAL DENSITIES OF THE EXCITED STATES.