Michigan ultra-cold polarized atomic hydrogen jet target

Abstract

To study spin effects in high energy collisions, we are developing an ultra-cold high-density jet target of proton-spin-polarized hydrogen atoms. The target uses a 12 Tesla magnetic field and a 0.3 K separation cell coated with superfluid helium-4 to produce a slow monochromatic electron-spin-polarized atomic hydrogen beam, which is then focused by a superconducting sextupole into the interaction region. In recent tests, we studied a polarized beam of hydrogen atoms focused by the superconducting sextupole into a compression tube detector, which measured the polarized atoms’ intensity. The Jet produced, at the detector, a spin-polarized atomic hydrogen beam with a measured intensity of about 2.8⋅1015 H s−1 and a FWHM area of less than 0.13 cm2. This intensity corresponds to a free jet density of about 1⋅1012 H cm−3 with a proton polarization of about 50%. When the transition RF unit is installed, we expect a proton polarization higher than 90%.