Intense source of slow positrons from pulsed electron accelerators

A pulsed LINAC is used for pair production in a tantalum target of 2.5 radiation lengths in an energy range from 80 to 260 MeV. Several well-annealed tungsten vanes are placed immediately behind the target and thermalize a small fraction of the fast positrons. The slow positrons are extracted from the target region and magnetically guided over a distance of 17 m to the detector at the end of an S-shaped solenoid. Two Nal detectors with well-known detection efficiency are used to register the 511 keV annihilation-rays. To reduce pile-up effects 50 mm of Pb were placed in front of the detectors. At an average electron current of 1 A we could detect about 10⁷ slow positrons per second. The positron yield is proportional to the electron current, and shows an increase with the electron energy for our target. The positron energy distribution has a FWHM of 1.8 eV.