Small-angle neutron polarization for the 2H(d, n)3He reaction near Ed = 8 MeV
Considerable improvement in the quality of analyzing power experiments performed with polarized fast neutrons has been achieved during the last few years by using neutrons from the polarization transfer reaction 2H(d, n)3He at a reaction angle of θ = 0°. To compromise in these experiments between intensity problems and finite geometry corrections, it is desirable in some instances to subtend a full-width angle Δθ of 20° (lab) centered about θ = 0°. In order to investigate the suitability of this reaction as a source of polarized neutrons for cases where the scatterer is close to the neutron source, the neutron polarization of the reaction 2H(d, n)3He has been studied with Δθ of about 3° of 3° steps out to θ = 20° (lab). An incident deuteron energy near 8 MeV was chosen to yield outgoing neutrons at 11.0 MeV, a typical energy for neutron analyzing power experiments. It is found that the "effective" neutron polarization, a combination of the two polarizations measured when the direction of the deuteron polarization is inverted or "flipped" at the polarized ion source, is large and nearly constant for angles between θ = 0° and θ = 10° (lab). © 1981.