ANL, Lemont, Illinois, USA
Pytomic is a new tool for the simulation and analysis of atomic beams through magnetic systems. It is written in Python and based on the same fundamentals as other particle tracking codes but for atomic beams instead of charged beams. In this case, the manipulation and control of neutral atomic beams is via a force due to the spin interacting with a magnetic field gradient. An object-oriented tool was developed to aid in the design of a beamline through the manipulation of modular elements. The Python language allowed for a smooth implementation and kept the code clear and simple. The primary purpose of developing this code was to have a tool to design, simulate, and optimize a Breit-Rabi Polarimeter to measure the polarization of an atomic beam. Therefore, different set-ups with different magnets need to be simulated and optimized for direct comparison. In addition to simulation and tracking modules, a new data analysis module was developed to be able to quickly analyze simulation results, gaining insight from each iteration of the simulation, leading to an efficient and rapid design process. Example applications to design polarimeters for atomic beams will be presented.
