Experimental and computational study of copper–gadolinium alloy evaporation

We report an experimental study of the expansion of a gadolinium–copper atomic vapor mixture in vacuum and the comparison with a test-particle Monte Carlo simulation. This simulation gives a description of collision relaxation in the binary case, taking account of excited metastable levels. The metal alloy was evaporated by a focused electron gun. We measured the net mass flow rate, radial velocities, and angular flux profiles. These data show the occurrence of aerodynamic phenomena in these mixtures: the velocity increase and the narrowing of the angular flux profile of a heavy element with a light element present, the decrease in the velocity, and broadening of the angular flux profile of the light element with a heavy element present. There is good agreement between the experimental results and the computations.