Polarized He neutron spin filter program at the JCNS

Polarized neutron instruments will occupy about 80% of the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) instrument park. A successful polarized ³He program will be integral to many of these instruments. We have been focusing the developments on spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP) to polarize the ³He gas in situ. Where possible, in situ polarization using the SEOP method will provide higher time averaged performance of the instruments. Further this allows a custom-built and independent source of polarized ³He to be developed optimized for each instruments demands. In this paper we will: present an argument for the advantages of in situ polarization; describe an in situ polarizer we have constructed, and initial tests of its performance; describe testing of polarization analysis for small angle neutron scattering on biological samples, and our plans for an in situ polarizer for this application.     

The structure of He and the neutron electric form factor from polarization observables

As there are no free neutron targets one has to resort to the nuclear targets deuterium or helium. In order to reduce nuclear effects blurring the information on nuclear form factors the technique of double polarization experiments had been developed. Recent experiments at MAMI measuring the electric form factor of the neutron are discussed. In addition, other single and double nucleon knockout experiments are described which support the buildup of a consistent interpretation of nuclear structure in ³He.     

A wide angle neutron spin filter system using polarized He

Polarized ³He neutron spin filters can operate over a wide neutron energy range and provide a large angular acceptance. A compact ³He neutron spin filter system has been developed for the Multi-Axis Crystal Spectrometer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research. Sealed ³He cells, polarized by spin-exchange optical pumping, are used as polarizer and analyzer. The polarization of the neutrons incident on the sample is inverted by flipping the polarization of the ³He gas in the polarizer, with only a small effect on the analyzer cells. The cell fabrication process, ³He spin flipper, and the holding magnetic field are discussed and we present the results of a first on-linetest.     

Measurement of the neutron beam polarization of BL05/NOP beamline at J-PARC

We measured the neutron beam polarization of the BL05/NOP (Neutron Optics and Physics) beamline at J-PARC with an accuracy of less than 10⁻³ using polarized ³He gas as a neutron spin analyzer. Precise polarimetry of the neutron beam is necessary to understand the beamline optics as well as for the asymmetry measurements of the neutron beta decay, which are planned in this beamline.     

Increasing the pump-up rate to polarize He gas using spin-exchange optical pumping method

In recent years, polarized ³He gas has increasingly been used as neutron polarizers and polarization analyzers. Two of the leading methods to polarize the ³He gas are the spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP) method and the meta-stable exchange optical pumping (MEOP) method. At present, the SEOP setup is comparatively compact due to the fact that it does not require the sophisticated compressor system used in the MEOP method. The temperature and the laser power available determine the speed, at which the SEOP method polarizes the ³He gas. For the quantity of gas typically used in neutron scattering work, this speed is independent of the quantity of the gas required, whereas the polarizing time using the MEOP method is proportional to the quantity of gas required. Currently, using the SEOP method to polarize several bar-liters of ³He to 70% polarization would require 20−40 h. This is an order of magnitude longer than the MEOP method for the same quantity of gas and polarization. It would therefore be advantageous to speed up the SEOP process. In this article, we analyze the requirements for temperature, laser power, and the type of alkali used in order to shorten the time required to polarize ³He gas using the SEOP method.     

Research on glass cells for He neutron spin filters

Glass cells play an important role in polarized ³He neutron spin filters. To evaluate the scattering and absorption contribution from glass cells during neutron scattering experiments, we measured small-angle scattering and neutron transmission in GE180 and other glasses. The small-angle neutron scattering measurements revealed that the glasses used for ³He spin filters have acceptably lower scattering: dΣ(Q)/dΩ=4-7×10⁻⁴ cm⁻¹ at Q=0.03-0.12 Å⁻¹. The transmission measurement was performed at J-PARC. Neutron transmission of about 92% through empty GE180 cells was observed over a wide wavelength range 0.014-7.0 Å. To pursue the possibility of being a structural influence on ³He spin relaxation in GE180 glass cells, we performed precise X-ray diffraction measurement using synchrotron radiation at SPring-8. From these measurements, a structural difference was observed among GE180 glasses with different thermal treatments.     

Development of a compact on-beam SEOP neutron spin filter

We have designed and demonstrated a prototype on-beam spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP) ³He neutron spin filter (NSF). It is designed as the incident neutron polarizer for spallation neutron sources, where the installation space is limited due to thick radiation shielding. The size of the NSF is roughly 50 cm×50 cm×25 cm including the diode-laser optics with a frequency narrowing external cavity, and a cylindrical ³He cell as large as a diameter of 5 cm and a length of 10 cm can fit. A neutron beam test was performed at the NOP beamline of JRR-3 to see the performance of the NSF.     

Applications of He neutron spin filters at the NCNR

At the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR), we have applied ³He neutron spin filters (NSFs) to the instruments where ³He NSFs are advantageous, such as thermal triple-axis spectrometry, small-angle neutron scattering, and diffuse reflectometry. We present the status of our development and application of this method, including polarized gas production by spin-exchange optical pumping, magnetostatic cavities for storage of the polarized gas on the beam line, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based, on-line monitoring and reversal of the ³He polarization. We present the status of developing user-friendly interfaces incorporated into the instrument software to handle these ³He neutron spin filters while taking data and performing data analysis. Finally we discuss the status of development of a polarization capability on the multi-axis crystal spectrometer, which requires polarization analysis over a 220° angular range.     

He accumulation effect in solid and liquid D-T mixture

This article reports the accumulation effect of the ³He originating from tritium β decay; ³He created in solid remains in it, while one in liquid diffuses and goes out to the vapor gas. We observed this effect through the neutron detection from muon catalyzed fusion phenomenon (μCF), and gave it qualitative understanding, by which the muon transfer rate from (dμ) and (tμ) to helium was derived. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Simple and inexpensive3He insert for an ac susceptometer

The design of a simple and inexpensive³He insert for the existing ac susceptometer is described. The system uses a home built mutual inductance bridge for the ac susceptibility measurements from 0·4 K to 300 K. Simple and inexpensive design with the top loading facility are the main features of this set up. The insert can also be used as a continuously³He operating refrigerator down to 0·5 K.     

External cavity design of high-power diode laser for polarized helium-3 neutron spin filters based on spin-exchange optical pumping

Polarized neutron spin filters are being developed based on spin-exchange optical pumping. In the present study a high-power diode laser (85 W) was used to excite Rb atoms and the laser linewidth was narrowed using an external cavity. The optics in the external cavity were designed by ray tracing. The ray-trace calculations demonstrated that a doublet lens in front of the laser eliminates aberrations. The maximum spectral peak height in the doublet optics was found to be 25% higher than for a singlet lens.     

Effective interactions in dilute mixtures of3He in4He

Nonlocal pseudopotentials which describe the effective interaction between³He quasiparticles, and between these quasiparticles and the background⁴He liquid, are obtained as a function of concentration and pressure by generalizing the Aldrich-Pines pseudopotentials for pure³He and⁴He to dilute mixtures. The hierarchy of physical effects which determine these pseudopotentials is established. Interaction-induced short-range correlations are the dominant physical feature; next in order of importance is the greater zero point motion associated with the replacement of a⁴He atom by a³He atom, while spin-induced Pauli principle correlations play a significantly smaller, albeit still important role. We find a consistent trend in the change of the effective direct quasiparticle interactions with increasing concentration, and show how the Aldrich-Pines pseudopotentials for pure³He quasiparticles represent a natural extension of our results for dilute mixtures. Our calculated nonlocal pseudopotential for³He quasiparticles is qualitatively similar to that proposed by Bardeen, Baym, and Pines; it changes sign at somewhat lower momentum transfers than the BBP result, varies little with concentration, and provides a physical basis for understanding the BBP result. The effective interaction between quasiparticles of parallel spin, here determined for the first time, is essentially repulsive in the very dilute limit; as the concentration increases, it becomes increasingly attractive at low momentum transfers, and resembles closely that between antiparallel spin quasiparticles at 5% concentration. The concentration-dependent transport properties calculated from these pseudopotentials (which involve only one phenomenological parameter) are in good agreement with experiment at saturated vapor pressure (SVP), 10 atm, and 20 atm. Maxima in the thermal conductivity and spin diffusion are predicted to occur at concetrations somewhat less than 4%. Because the effective quasiparticle interactions are somewhat more repulsive than those previously proposed, we find the transition of the³He quasiparticles to the superfluid state takes place at significantly lower temperatures than many previous estimates; our predicted maximum superfluid transition temperature is 2×10^–8 K (for a 0.6% mixture at 20 atm).     

Nonlinear propagation of ultrasound in superfluid3He

After introducing the physics of sound propagation in normal and superfluid³He, nonlinear phenomena are discussed. These bear close resemblance to optical effects, including saturation of the absorption, amplitude dependence of the group velocity, pulse break-up, and pulse compression. Preliminary evidence indicates that above an input power threshold the sound pulses propagate in a solitonlike fashion. A naive sine-Gordon model does not explain the observations.     

Analytic representation for3He form factors

A modifiedN/D method is applied for the cases of³He charge and magnetic form factors. Anomalous cut positions are computed using possible exchanges at the photon-³He electromagnetic vertex. and one of them is found att _a =0.0618 GeV². TheD-function is used to parametrize the two-pion cut while theN-function is taken to represent the effect of an anomalous or the three-pion cut. Excellent fits to the available experimental data on charge and magnetic form factors are obtained and several useful information on the form factors computed.     

MR imaging of apparent 3He gas transport in narrow pipes and rodent airways

High sensitivity makes hyperpolarized ³He an attractive signal source for visualizing gas flow with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Its rapid Brownian motion, however, can blur observed flow lamina and alter measured diffusion rates when excited nuclei traverse shear-induced velocity gradients during data acquisition. Here, both effects are described analytically, and predicted values for measured transport during laminar flow through a straight, 3.2-mm diameter pipe are validated using two-dimensional (2D) constant-time images of different binary gas mixtures. Results show explicitly how measured transport in narrow conduits is characterized by apparent values that depend on underlying gas dynamics and imaging time. In ventilated rats, this is found to obscure acquired airflow images. Nevertheless, flow splitting at airway branches is still evident and use of 3D vector flow mapping is shown to reveal surprising detail that highlights the correlation between gas dynamics and lung structure.     

Magnetic properties of <Superscript>3</Superscript>He on the recursive lattices

We considered the Heisenberg model on the recursive lattices with multi-spin interaction in a strong magnetic field as an approximation of the two-dimensional kagome lattice, as well as hexagonal recursive lattices as an approximation of triangular lattice, for solid ³He. In a strong magnetic field it is possible to approximate the Heisenberg model with the Izing one. Using dynamic approach, we obtain exact recursion relations for partition functions. Diagrams of the magnetization versus external magnetic field with different spin-exchange parameters and temperatures are presented. Magnetization plateaux, bifurcation points, and doublings are obtained.     

The He scattering and reactions on C and cluster states of C

The ⁶He+¹²C elastic and inelastic scattering and the ⁶He+¹²C→α+¹⁴C reaction have been measured using a 18.0 MeV ⁶He beam. Experimental results for the elastic scattering are in fair agreement with optical model predictions, using the potentials found in the analysis of ⁶Li scattering on ¹²C at similar energies. In triple coincidences, the ⁶He+¹²C→¹⁰Be+2α reactions were clearly seen, with the ¹⁰Be nucleus left in ground and several excited states. The dominant mechanism of this reaction is sequential decay through cluster states of ¹⁴C.     

Investigation of the electronic structure of Be2+He and Be+He,and static dipole polarisabilities of the helium atom

The potential energy and spectroscopic constants of the ground and many excited states of the Be⁺He van der Waals system have been investigated using a one-electron pseudo-potential approach, which is used to replace the effect of the Be²⁺ core and the electron-He interactions by effective potentials. Furthermore, the core–core interactions are incorporated. This permits the reduction of the number of active electrons of the Be⁺He van der Waals system to only one electron. Therefore, the potential energy of the ground state as well as the excited states is performed at the SCF level and considering the spin–orbit interaction. The core–core interaction for Be²⁺He ground state is included using accurate CCSD (T) calculations. Then, the spectroscopic properties of the Be⁺He electronic states are extracted and compared with the previous theoretical and experimental studies. This comparison has shown a very good agreement for the ground and the first excited states. Moreover, the transition dipole moment has been determined for a large and dense grid of internuclear distances including the spin orbit effect. In addition, a vibrational spacing analysis for the Be²⁺He and Be⁺He ground states is performed to extract the He atomic polarisability.