UNISOR on-line nuclear orientation facility (UNISOR/NOF)

The UNISOR on-line nuclear orientation facility (UNISOR/NOF) consists of a₃He−₄He dilution refrigerator on line to the isotope separator. Nuclei are implanted directly into a target foil which is soldered to the bottom accessed cold finger of the refrigerator. A 1.5 T superconducting magnet polarizes the ferromagnetic target foils and determines the axis of symmetry. Up to eight gamma detectors can be positioned around the refrigerator, each 9 cm from the target. A unique feature of this system is that the k=4 term in the directional distribution function can be directly and unambigously deduced so that a single solution for the mixing ratio can be found. The first on-line experiment at this facility reported here was a study of the decay of the¹⁹¹Hg and¹⁹³Hg isotopes.     

Ultrasensitive 3He magnetometer for measurements of high magnetic fields

We describe a ³He magnetometer capable to measure high magnetic fields (B> 0.1 T) with a relative accuracy of better than 10^-12. Our approach is based on the measurement of the free induction decay of gaseous, nuclear spin polarized ³He following a resonant radio frequency pulse excitation. The measurement sensitivity can be attributed to the long coherent spin precession time T₂ ^? being of order minutes which is achieved for spherical sample cells in the regime of “motional narrowing” where the disturbing influence of field inhomogeneities is strongly suppressed. The ³He gas is spin polarized in situ using a new, non-standard variant of the metastability exchange optical pumping. We show that miniaturization helps to increase T₂ ^? further and that the measurement sensitivity is not significantly affected by temporal field fluctuations of order 10^-4.     

First result from the MTV experiment at TRIUMF searching T-violation in nuclear beta decay

The MTV experiment (Mott Polarimetry for T-Violation Experiment) is running from 2009 at TRIUMF, which aims to search a large non-standard T-Violation in polarized nuclear beta decay. Existence of transverse polarization of electrons emitted from polarized ⁸Li nuclei, which are produced at TRIUMF-ISAC and stopped inside an aluminum stopper, is investigated. We utilize a Mott polarimeter consists of a planer drift chamber, measuring backward scattering left-right asymmetry from a thin lead analyzer foil. In this paper, preliminary results from the first physics run performed in 2010 are described.     

In situ NMR/ON on 197mHg implanted at T<0.5 K in iron

^197mHg was implanted in a iron foil at T<0.5 K. Subsequently a nuclear magnetic resonance experiment was performed in situ. A fraction of 32(4)% of the total number of implanted nuclei could be resonated. The small line width Γ=1.13(18) MHz indicates, that these nuclei experience no perceptible quadrupole interaction from their surroundings.     

Magnetic moments of mirror nuclei with tilted-foil polarization

We report here on an ongoing experimental program initiated at the ISOLDE facility at CERN for the measurement of magnetic moments of short-lived radionuclides, with the emphasis on magnetic moments of mirror nuclei in far-from-stability regions. The nuclei are polarized by the tilted foil technique and the resulting 0–180^○ βasymmetry is monitored as a function of rf frequency applied in an NMR setup. In order to achieve sufficiently high energy for transmission through the foils, the experimental setup is mounted on a high voltage platform. The first experiment in this program was the measurement of the βasymmetry and the NMR resonance for the ground state of ²³Mg (I=3/2, T_1/2=11.3 s), yielding μ=−0.533(6) nm. Improvements to the experimental setup are presently being designed, to be used in conjunction with the new developments at ISOLDE for obtaining high charge-state ions from the EBIS (REX-ISOLDE) ion source. This will help pave the way for measurements of magnetic moments of T=3/2 nuclei in the s–d shell and of T=1/2 f-shell nuclei. The study of relaxation times and other solid-state phenomena in semiconductors and other materials of interest using this technique is also contemplated. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Relaxation and deorientation of110Ag(T 1/2=24.4s) nuclei produced by capture of polarized neutrons in the silver halides

Polarized¹¹⁰Ag nuclei are produced in the silver halides by capture of polarized neutrons at temperatures below 30 K and magnetic field strengths up to 6 kOe. The depolarization process is studied by observation of the β decay asymmetry as a function of magnetic field, temperature and of the radio frequency field strength in NMR signals. The depolarization is caused by a field dependent deorientation process and by temperature dependent spin-lattice relaxation. The deorientation is due to a succession of coupling steps of the nuclear spin with electromagnetic fields of defects generated as a consequence of the capture process, and the field dependence of the polarization can be understood as a decoupling curve. The temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation is in accordance with the theory of quadrupolar relaxation above 18 K if an empirical phonon spectrum is used for the calculation. At lower temperatures the experimental relaxation rate is anomalously high, which may be due to resonance modes connected with recoil lattice defects.     

Dynamical polarization of radioactive nuclei

In order to polarize radioactive nuclei implanted in a highly polarized protonic target, it is proposed to use methods for the dynamical orientation of nuclei. The angular distribution of photons that originate from the cascade beta-gamma decay of the ²²Na(3⁺) state in a strong magnetic field is calculated. It is shown that, if the populations of Zeeman magnetic sublevels obey the Boltzmann distribution, the angular distribution of emitted photons is independent of the sign of spin temperature; at the same time, the tensor polarization of quadrupole nuclei occurring in the intrinsic field of a crystal causes a strong dependence of the anisotropy on the sign of spin temperature. A rich potential of a dynamical orientation for studying the magnetic structure of rare nuclei and the dynamics of their spin-spin interactions in dielectric host materials is demonstrated. Physical and technological advantages and disadvantages of the method in the on-line regime of the implantation of heavy nuclei are discussed.     

Radiative detection of NMR studies of domain nuclei in enriched ferromagnetic iron

Combined host (∼95 at% enriched stable ⁵⁷Fe) and very dilute impurity (∼0.01 at% radioactive ⁶⁰Co) NMR signals have been obtained on the one sample of polycrystalline Fe foil utilising perturbations to the gamma anisotropy from in situ thermally oriented ⁶⁰Co nuclei for both resonances. The NMR-TDNO signals on the ⁵⁷Fe sites have been followed down to applied magnetic fields well below the host magnetic saturation and exhibited two distinct components; a strong, narrow homogeneous signal, superimposed over a broader inhomogeneous signal. The impurity ⁶⁰Co⁵⁷Fe inhomogeneous resonance has been studied with three pulse NMRON and the irreversible decay of the nuclear spin echo measured as a function of applied magnetic field. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Time-resolved and time-integral on-line nuclear orientation measurements of neutron-deficient Hg−Au−Pt−Ir nuclei

The methods of time-resolved and time-integral on-line nuclear orientation have been applied to study short lived nuclei with the NICOLE facility (Nuclear Implantation into Cold On-Line Equipment) at ISOLDE-3 in CERN using beams of^182–186Hg. The half-lives in these decay chains are of the order of seconds and therefore comparable to the spin-lattice relaxation times of the nuclei in iron. As the relaxation rate depends strongly on the g-factor, g-factors of nuclei in the decay chains can be deduced from the observation of the time evolution of γ-ray anisotropy. Using this technique the existence of an isomer in¹⁸⁴Au has been found and the g-factors of¹⁸⁴Au,^184mAu and¹⁸²Au have been determined. Accurate half-lives have been extracted from the data. Time-integral nuclear orientation has been observed for short lived as well as longer lived isotopes of the Hg decay chains. From these measurements, after proper correction for incomplete relaxation, the magnetic moments of^183mPt,¹⁸³Ir and¹⁸²Ir have been derived. The applicability of the time-resolved nuclear orientation technique for nuclei far from stability and its possible limitations is discussed.     

The tilted-multifoil hyperfine interaction and nuclear spectroscopy

Ions emerging from a stretched foil with their velocity vectorv at an oblique angle to the normaln (tilted foil geometry) are known to be polarized along the axisv×n. The electronic polarization of atomic configurations can influence the nucleus during flight in vacuum via the hyperfine interaction. For a large number of polarizing foils and for very short interaction times, the resulting effects resemble a pure precession in an external magnetic field and have been used to measureg-factors of short-lived nuclear high-spin levels. For long interaction times, a net nuclear polarization is induced and has so far been utilized to determine signs of nuclear quadrupole moments of high-spin isomers and to investigate parity nonconservation effects in⁹³Tc.     

Quadrupole moment of the doubly closed shell +1 nucleon nucleus41Sc(Iπ=7/2−)

The nuclear electric quadrupole moment of⁴¹Sc(I^π=7/2⁻) was experimentally determined by use of the NMR detection in which the asymmetric β-ray distribution from spin polarized nuclei was monitored. The magnetic interaction of the state with high external magnetic field and the nuclear quadrupole interaction with the electric field gradient obtained in TiO₂ crystal were studied. The field gradient seen to the implanted⁴¹Sc was measured independently by the high field NMR detection on the stable isotope⁴⁵Sc located in the equivalent⁴¹Sc site with. |Q(⁴¹Sc;I^π=7/2⁻)|=(0.120±0.006) b was determined.     

First experiments and future prospects at the Daresbury On-Line Isotope Separator

The Daresbury On-Line Isotope Separator (DOLIS) has recently been commissioned, in conjunction with the Nuclear Structure Facility (NSF) 20 MV tandem accelerator, and a³He-⁴He dilution refrigerator. First experiments are concentrating on a study of the decay of the neutron deficient iodine isotopes, extracted from a FEBIAD ion source and implanted at 60 keV into an iron host at 15 mK. As well as measuring iodine magnetic moments, the role of proton excitations across the Z=50 shell gap is being investigated in the even-even tellurium daughter nuclei. An on-line laser facility is also being developed, and first measurements have been made for unstable samarium isotopes     

Electric quadrupole interactions on 12B and 12N implanted in Mg studied by nuclear depolarization due to level mixing

Electric quadrupole interactions on polarized ¹²B and ¹²N implanted in a Mg single crystal have been studied by a new method in which the nuclear depolarization due to level mixing caused by an external magnetic field is detected.     

Single crystal surfaces probed by polarized nuclei

Nuclear magnetic resonance has developed into a very powerful technique to study the structure and dynamics of atomic and molecular systems, both in liquid and solid phase. However the investigation of single crystal surfaces with “conventional” NMR methods is essentially impossible due to the small sample size of less than 10¹⁵ sites on a cm². To overcome this for the important class of alkali adsorbates on metals and semiconductors, two methods are presented. Common to both is the preparation of a highly nuclear spin polarized atomic beam of ⁶Li in the one case and ⁸Li in the other. The latter isotope is radioactive and undergoes a \beta‐decay with a halflife of 0.84 s. Li adsorbed on the close packed Ru(001) surface is investigated. The T{in1} relaxation rate is the main observable and is used to deduce the local electronic density of states (LDOS(E_F,r=0)) and the Li diffusion barriers at low and high adsorbate coverage. The second experiment uses ⁶Li as an adsorbate, also studied on Ru(001). The nuclear polarization is measured by beam foil spectroscopy. A novel particle detected (photon counting) Fourier‐Transform NMR technique is demonstrated, by observing the time dependent flux of circularly polarized light emitted behind the foil after a 90^\circ‐pulse has been employed at the surface. Development and prospects of the latter technique are presented. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Spin polarized 3He: From basic research to medical applications

Polarization of ³He gas by means of optical pumping is well known since the early 1960s with first applications in fundamental physics. Some thirty years later it was discovered, that one can use hyperpolarized ³He as contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging of the lung. The wide interest in this new method made it necessary to find ways of polarizing ³He in large quantities with high polarization degrees. A high performance polarizing facility has been developed at the University of Mainz, designed for centralized production of hyperpolarized ³He gas. We present the Mainz concept as well as some examples of numerous applications of spin polarized ³He in fundamental research and medical applications.     

Angular distributions of α particles emitted by oriented nuclei and their relation to nuclear deformation

Low-temperature spin orientation of radioactive nuclei is a nuclear spectroscopic method that allows us to obtain experimental data on nuclei and extranuclear fields. We present the results from measuring the angular anisotropy of α radiation emitted by transuranium nuclei of ^253,254Es, ²⁵⁵Fm, ^241,243Am, along with that of γ radiation from ²⁵⁰Bk nuclei oriented in an iron matrix at temperatures of 10–300 mK. The data allow us to establish the relation between the mechanism of α decay and nuclear deformation and to compare them to the theoretical data. We also measure the energy of magnetic hyperfine splitting for the investigated nuclei, and find the magnetic hyperfine field value for Es in Fe to be |B _hf | = 396(32) T. The nuclear magnetic moment for ²⁵⁴Es was determined, and its value was |μ(²⁵⁴Es)| = 4.35(41)μ _N .     

Ultra-sensitive magnetometry based on free precession of nuclear spins

We discuss the design and performance of a very sensitive low-field magnetometer based on the detection of free spin precession of gaseous, nuclear polarized ³He or ¹²⁹Xe samples with a SQUID as magnetic flux detector. The device will be employed to control fluctuating magnetic fields and gradients in a new experiment searching for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron. Furthermore, with the detection of the free precession of co-located ³He/¹²⁹Xe nuclear spins it can be used as ultra-sensitive probe for non-magnetic spin interactions, since the magnetic dipole interaction (Zeeman-term) drops out. Characteristic spin precession times T₂ ^* of up to 60 h were measured. The achieved signal-to-noise ratio of more than 5000:1 leads to an expected sensitivity level (Cramer-Rao lower bound) of δB≈1 fT after an integration time of 220 s and of δB≈10^-4 fT after one day. By means of a co-located ³He/¹²⁹Xe magnetometer, noise sources inherent in the magnetometer could be investigated, showing that CRLB is fulfilled, at least down to δB≈10^-2 fT. The reason for such a high sensitivity is that free precessing ³He (¹²⁹Xe) nuclear spins are almost completely decoupled from the environment. Therefore, this type of magnetometer is particularly attractive for precision field measurements where long-term stability is required.     

Dynamic polarization of nuclei in a self-organized ensemble of quantum-size n-InP/InGaP islands

Dynamic polarization of ³¹P nuclei is observed in a self-organized system of InP islands grown by metalorganic-hydride epitaxy in an InGaP matrix. The polarized nuclei produce an effective magnetic field which acts on the polarization of the excitonic radiation. Optical detection of the magnetic resonance signal from ³¹P nuclei in the crystal lattice of nanosize InP islands is successfully carried out. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 68, No. 9, 711–714 (10 November 1998)     

Magnetic moment measurements of picosecond states: New results and open problems

The temperature dependence of the precession of the angular correlation of decay gamma rays from swift¹⁵⁰Sm (2 ₁ ⁺ ) ions traversing a gadolinium foil has been found to be proportional to the foil magnetization, supporting the assertion that the transient hyperfine magnetic field acting on these ions is proportional to the magnetization of the hosts (iron or gadolinium). Similar experiments on¹⁹⁴Pt (2 ₁ ⁺ ) ions traversing iron and gadolinium foils are consistent with both the magnetic moment obtained from Rutgers experiments on iron and with a hyperfine field at Pt ions larger for gadolinium than for iron foils, in agreement with the Chalk River parametrization for heavy nuclei traversing gadolinium foils. Finally, the magnetic moments of the 2 ₁ ⁺ states in^144–150Nd,^145,150Sm and¹⁵²Gd have been measured. These data support the evidence of shell closure atZ=64 forN≤88 andZ=50 forN>90.     

Directional distributions of beta-rays emitted from polarized 60Co nuclei

The ⁶⁰Co nuclei in a thin permendur foil were polarized by a pair of orthogonal magnetic flux loops at ultralow temperatures. The observed angular distribution and the asymmetry factor (A_exp = ?1.01 ± 0.02) are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions of (1 + α cos θ) dependence and A_theory = ?1.0.