High level of 3He polarization maintained in an on-beam 3He spin filter using SEOP

Abstract

Maintaining high levels of 3He polarization over long periods of time is important for many areas of fundamental and particle beam physics. Long measurement times are often required in such experiments, and the data quality is a function of the 3He polarization. This is the case for neutron scattering, where the 3He can be used to analyze the spin of a scattered neutron beam. For neutron scattering, the relatively small fluxes of polarized neutrons lead to experiment times longer than several days. Consequently, the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) is developing spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP) systems capable of polarizing the 3He gas in place on a typical neutron instrument. With the polarizer we have constructed, a very high level of 3He polarization of 80.4%±1.5% was obtained and maintained with good time stability. Having such high levels of polarization that are stable over time will reduce the measurement times for such experiments and eliminate time-dependent data corrections.