DESIGN OF A 1.42 GHz SPIN-FLIP CAVITY FOR ANTIHYDROGEN ATOMS

The ground state hyperfine transition frequency of hydrogen is known to a very high precision and therefore the measurement of this transition frequency in antihydrogen is offering one of the most accurate tests of CPT symmetry. The ASACUSA collaboration at CERN will run an experiment designed to produce ground state antihydrogen atoms in a cusp trap. These antihydrogen atoms will pass with a low rate in the order of 1 per second through a spin-flip cavity where they get excited depending on their polarization by a 1.42 GHz magnetic field. Due to the small amount of antihydrogen atoms that will be available the requirement of good field homogeneity is imposed in order to obtain an interaction with as many antihydrogen atoms as possible. This leads to a requirement of an RF field deviation of less than ±10% transverse to the beam direction over a beam aperture with 10 cm diameter. All design aspects of this new spin-flip cavity, including the required field homogeneity and vacuum aspects, are discussed.