Polarization reversal of proton spins in a solid-state target by superradiance

Abstract

The new Bonn frozen spin target developed for spin physics experiments with tagged photons from the Bonn electron stretcher accelerator ELSA has successfully been used in pion photoproduction experiments. Proton polarization values of −99% and +94% in ammonia, −96% and +90% in butanol have been achieved in a dilution refrigerator at a magnetic field of 3.53 T. At a temperature below 100 mK and a magnetic field of 0.35 T a very fast spontaneous polarization reversal within a time interval of 800 μs has been observed. This effect occurred only at negative polarization and has been identified as a collective spontaneous emission — i.e. superradiance — in the two level proton spin system. Detailed investigations have been made in order to study whether this effect is useful for a fast polarization reversal of the entire sample. Up to now the highest polarization reversal from −90% to +60% has been obtained in a target volume of 6.5 cm 3.