6533b7d8fe1ef96bd126a162
RESEARCH PRODUCT
3He neutron spin filter at ILL
Werner HeilKen Haste AndersenF. TassetD HofmannH. HumblotOtto SchärpfJ. KuldaE. Lelièvre-bernasubject
PhysicsSpin polarizationRelaxation (NMR)PlasmaCondensed Matter PhysicsElectronic Optical and Magnetic MaterialsNuclear physicsOptical pumpingMetastabilityThermalNeutronElectrical and Electronic EngineeringAtomic physicsBar (unit)description
Abstract The strongly spin-dependent absorption of neutrons in nuclear spin polarized 3He opens the possibility to polarize neutrons over the full-spectrum of cold, thermal and epithermal neutrons. At ILL a neutron spin filter (NSF) development started which uses the direct optical pumping of metastable 3He atoms in a 3He plasma at 1 mbar. At present 0.5 bar 1 of gaseous 3He can be polarized within 1 h. Subsequent polarization-preserving compression by a two-stage compressor system enables one to prepare NSF cells of about 300 cm3 volume in the required pressure range of several bars. A remote type of operation based on relaxation times of up to 100 h has been demonstrated in a first survey of experiments. Two representative examples are discussed which demonstrate the high potentiality for many polarized neutron-scattering applications.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997-12-01 | Physica B: Condensed Matter |