A high-pressure polarized ³He gas target for nuclear-physics experiments using a polarized photon beam

Following the first experiment on three-body photodisintegration of polarized 3He utilizing circularly polarized photons from High-Intensity Gamma Source (HIγS) at Duke Free Electron Laser Laboratory (DFELL), a new high-pressure polarized 3He target cell made of pyrex glass coated with a thin layer of sol-gel doped with aluminum nitrate nonahydrate has been built in order to reduce the photon beam-induced background. The target is based on the technique of spin exchange optical pumping of hybrid rubidium and potassium and the highest polarization achieved is ~ 62% determined from both NMR-AFP and EPR polarimetries. The phenomenological parameter that reflects the additional unknown spin relaxation processes, X, is estimated to be ~ 0.10 and the performance of the target is in good agreement with theoretical predictions. We also present beam test results from this new target cell and the comparison with the GE180 3He target cell used previously at HIγS. This is the first time that the sol-gel coating technique has been used in a polarized 3He target for nuclear-physics experiments. © 2010 SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Duke Scholars

Author Haiyan Gao Physics