A positron injector for the LEPTA accumulator

An injector of monochromatic positrons for the low-energy positron accumulator (LEPTA) is being tested at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. The source of positrons is the radioactive source ²²Na. At the output of the source, positrons are slowed down in a solid target. Frozen neon is used as a moderator. For this purpose, a system of cryocooling of the source and the neon supply line have been assembled. A method of detection of slow positrons has been developed and tuned. The first experiments with the frozen moderator have been performed. A continuous beam of slow positrons with an average energy of 1.2 eV and spectrum width of 1 eV has been obtained.     

Construction of a positron microbeam in JAEA

We have developed a positron microbeam using magnetic lenses based on the commercial scanning electron microscope (SEM). A slow positron beam was generated using a handmade source with ²²Na and a solid neon moderator. The beam diameter was 3.9 μm on a target. Two-dimensional image of S parameter was successfully obtained. By introducing a beam pulsing section, positron lifetime measurement beam is also available.     

Positron injector for LEPTA

The low energy positron injector for the Low Energy Particle Toroidal Accumulator (LEPTA) accumulator was assembled at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR). Key elements of the injector have been tested. The cryogenic source of slow positrons was tested with a test isotope ²²Na of the initial activity of 0.8 MBk. A continuous slow positron beam intensity of 5.8 × 10³ particle per second with an average energy of 1.2 eV and a spectrum width of 1 eV has been obtained. The achieved moderator efficiency is about 1%. The accumulation process in the positron trap was investigated with electron flux. The lifetime of the electrons in the trap, τ_life ≥ 80 s and capture efficiency ɛ ∼ 0.4, were obtained. The maximum number of accumulated particles was N _exper = 2 × 10⁸ at the initial flux of 5 × 10⁶ electrons s⁻¹. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

The KLL Auger spectrum of neon from the EC-decay of Na

The low energy KLL Auger electrons of neon emitted after EC-decay of ²²Na have been investigated with a 4 eV instrumental resolution using an electrostatic spectrometer and a solid state radioactive source. This is the first experimental investigation of the KLL Auger spectrum of neon from the solid state. Relative intensities and energies of all resolved spectrum components were determined. Measured absolute energy of the dominant KL₂L₃(¹D) transition was found to be 824.5(19) eV, i.e. about 20 eV higher than that obtained in experiments with free Ne atoms. Within the experimental uncertainties, no influence of solid state effects on relative intensities of the KLL transitions was found.     

Solid neon moderated electrostatic or magnetic positron beam

A high intensity variable energy positron beam has been constructed at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Positrons from a 97 mCi²²Na source are moderated by a thin layer of solid neon. A magnetic guiding system delivered up to 5×10⁶ e⁺/sec to an experiment. Currently, tests are under way to facilitate the operation with the magnetic guiding system or—for other experimental sites—with an electrostatic beam transport. The electrostatic lenses are fabricated from μ-metal. No compensation of the earth's magnetic field is required. Several experiments can utilize the beam on a time-sharing basis. In the near future, the source will be replaced by⁶⁴Cu, which has a much higher activity. Beam intensities up to 10⁹ e⁺/sec are expected.     

Electron and positron work functions of Cr(100)

We report measurements of the electron and positron work functions of submonolayer contaminated single crystal surfaces of Cr(100) in ultra high vacuum. The positron work function ø₊ is obtained by measuring the spectrum of slow positrons reemitted by the Cr(100) surface when it is bombarded with keV energy positrons. The electron work function ø_- is measured relative to Al(100) by comparing the target biases at which the slowest emitted positrons are recollected by the target. We obtain ø₊ = ?1.76(10) eV and ø_- = 4.46(6) eV for our Cr(100) surface using the value ø_- = 4.41(3) eV for Al(100) reported by Grepstad, Gartland and Slagsvold. The ø₊ value is in agreement with the ?2.2 eV calculated by Nieminen and Hodges. The positronium work function for Cr implied by these results is ?4.10(10) eV; the positronium negative ion (Ps^-) work function for this surface is calculated to be + 0.37(7) eV. A search for Ps^- showed that at a 90% confidence level less than one in 10³ thermalized positrons reaching the Cr surface are emitted as Ps^-. The slow positron emission spectrum was observed not to change over the 70–300 K range in contrast to recent theoretical predictions.     

Development and application of the intense slow positron beam at IHEP

This paper describes the development and application of an intense slow positron beam at IHEP with regard to its two main components.The Variable-Energy Positron Lifetime Spectroscopy (VEPLS) based on the pulsing system consisting of a chopper,a prebuncher and a buncher has been constructed in order to meet the needs of materials science development.At present,the time resolution of the VEPLS can easily reach about 386 ps with a peak-to-background ratio of about 600:1.A plugged-in 22Na positron source section for adjusting the newly built experimental station and for increasing the beam operation efficiency has been constructed.A slow positron beam with an intensity of 2.5x105 e+/s and the beam profile whose diameter is 10 mm has been obtained;the moderation efficiency of the tungsten mesh moderator reaches 5.1x 10-4 as calculated with an original positron source activity of 52 mCi.     

Total cross-sections for the scattering of positrons by helium,neon, and argon at intermediate energies

A slow positron beam time of flight system in which scattering is localised to a region of the flight path close to the slow positron source is described. Total cross-sections measured in helium, neon, and argon at intermediate energies are presented. The results for helium and neon are in agreement with the recent results of Brenton et al. While significant disagreement still exists in the argon data. The helium and neon data are in agreement with the sum rule predictions of Bransden et al.     

Angular and energy distribution of electrons produced by 200–500 keV protons in gases

The cross beam method was used to measure double differential ionization cross sections for electron production by 200–500 keV protons incident on a molecular beam. The ejected secondary electrons were detected by an electron multiplier and an electrostatic 90 °-spectrometer which was movable in the scattering chamber from 18 °–155 ° with respect to the incident proton direction. After the elimination of disturbing electric and magnetic fields, electrons were measured at energies down to 1 eV. The absorption of the very slow electrons along their path through the spectrometer could be minimized by using a relatively low gas pressure in the scattering chamber of a few 10^?5 Torr. The efficiency of the electron detector was determined with an electron source whose emission rate per solid angle was known. Absolute cross sections and their angular dependence were obtained by measuring the slow electrons—ejected with a relatively high rate—without the molecular beam; these data being used to normalize the electron spectra acquired with the molecular beam. Ionization cross sections with 300 keV protons incident on helium are discussed and except for the very slow electrons, a good agreement is found with results of Ruddet al.     

Performance of the plugged-in 22Na based slow positron beam facility

The Beijing intense slow positron beam facility is based on the 1.3 GeV linac of Beijing ElectronPositron CoUider (BEPC) aiming to produce mono-energetic intense slow positron beam for material science investigation. The plugged-in 22Na based slow positron beam section has been newly constructed to supply continuous beam time for the debugging of positron annihilation measurement stations and improve the Beijing intense slow positron beam time using efficiency. Performance testing result of the plugged-in 22Na based slow positron beam facility are reviewed in this paper, with the measurement of the beam transport efficiency, the view of beam spot, the adjustment of beam position, the measurement of beam intensity and energy spread etc. included.     

Gas mixture effects on ion‐beam flux characteristics from dense plasma focus device: Investigation by the Vlasov–Maxwell equations and experiments

The Vlasov–Maxwell equations were numerically solved to calculate the ion‐beam flux from the plasma of argon and the plasma of mixtures of argon and neon. Some experiments were performed to measure the ion beam from the Amirkabir plasma focus (APF) device. The calculations have shown that the argon ion‐beam flux peaked up to 1.928 × 10³⁰ ions m^?2 s^?1 at the optimum pressure of 1.866 mbar while the neon‐argon mixture's ion‐beam flux reached a maximum of 4.301 × 10³⁰ ions m^?2 s^?1 for 15% neon admixture at the optimum pressure of 1.866 mbar. The calculated kinetic energy of the ion beam has shown a maximum value of 708.7 J for the mixture of 85% argon‐15% neon at the mentioned optimum pressure.     

Concept of a 6-T Penning trap at liquid-He temperature for the accumulation of positrons

High densities of ultra cold positrons are required for applications such as positronium production, scattering processes with atoms, surface analysis, cooling of highly charged ions and antihydrogen production. At the University of Aarhus, Denmark, an accelerator based slow positron source delivers about 5 × 10⁴ positrons within a 10 ns bunch at a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The energy spread is below 1 eV and the beam diameter is about 1 mm. The positron bunches shall be injected into a 6-T Penning trap at the temperature of liquid helium. The bunches can be captured at nearly 100% efficiency by a fast time variation of the trap potential. The cyclotron motion cools down by synchrotron radiation with a time constant of 80 ms. The axial motion can be cooled by coupling to the radial motion or by resistive cooling in a tuned circuit. By stacking of 100 pulses about 5 × 10⁶ positrons can be accumulated within 10 s. After this time most of the positrons have cooled down sufficiently that the trapping cycle can be started again. At the anticipated accumulation rate a positron plasma at the space charge limit should be obtainable within 1 h. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

High-intensity and high-brightness source of moderated positrons using a brilliant γ beam

Presently, large efforts are conducted toward the development of highly brilliant γ beams via Compton back scattering of photons from a high-brilliance electron beam, either on the basis of a normal-conducting electron linac or a (super-conducting) Energy Recovery Linac (ERL). Particularly, ERLs provide an extremely brilliant electron beam, thus enabling the generation of highest-quality γ beams. A 2.5 MeV γ beam with an envisaged intensity of 10¹⁵ photons s⁻¹, as ultimately envisaged for an ERL-based γ-beam facility, narrow band width (10⁻³), and extremely low emittance (10⁻⁴ mm² mrad²) offers the possibility to produce a high-intensity bright polarized positron beam. Pair production in a face-on irradiated W converter foil (200 μm thick, 10 mm long) would lead to the emission of 2×10¹³ (fast) positrons per second, which is four orders of magnitude higher compared to strong radioactive ²²Na sources conventionally used in the laboratory. Using a stack of converter foils and subsequent positron moderation, a high-intensity low-energy beam of moderated positrons can be produced. Two different source setups are presented: a high-brightness positron beam with a diameter as low as 0.2 mm, and a high-intensity beam of 3×10¹¹ moderated positrons per second. Hence, profiting from an improved moderation efficiency, the envisaged positron intensity would exceed that of present high-intensity positron sources by a factor of 100.     

Surface and bulk investigations at the high intensity positron beam facility NEPOMUC

The NEutron-induced POsitron source MUniCh (NEPOMUC) at the research reactor FRM II delivers a low-energy positron beam (E = 15-1000 eV) of high intensity in the range between 4 × 10⁷ and 5 × 10⁸ moderated positrons per second. At present four experimental facilities are in operation at NEPOMUC: a coincident Doppler-broadening spectrometer (CDBS) for defect spectroscopy and investigations of the chemical vicinity of defects, a positron annihilation-induced Auger-electron spectrometer (PAES) for surface studies and an apparatus for the production of the negatively charged positronium ion Ps⁻. Recently, the pulsed low-energy positron system (PLEPS) has been connected to the NEPOMUC beam line, and first positron lifetime spectra were recorded within short measurement times. A positron remoderation unit which is operated with a tungsten single crystal in back reflection geometry has been implemented in order to improve the beam brilliance. An overview of NEPOMUC's status, experimental results and recent developments at the running spectrometers are presented.     

Intense slow positron production at the 15 MeV LINAC at Argonne National Laboratory

An intense slow positron beam using a 15 MeV LINAC (average current 1.25 × 10¹⁵ e⁻/s) at the Radiation and Photochemistry Group, Chemistry Division of Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has been proposed and studied. Computer simulated results optimizing the positron yield and distribution of energy and angle show that a slow positron production at 10¹⁰ e⁺/s is possible. A proposed design of an intense slow positron beam with optimal conditions of incident electron, converter/moderator configurations, and extraction/transportation is presented.     

Transmission positron images using imaging plates

As an image recording medium for transmission positron microscopes, imaging plates are quite useful and powerful. Imaging plates are also quite sensitive and the photon-stimulated luminescence (PSL) is linearly proportional to the positron intensity in six digits (10⁶). No bulky or expensive equipment is necessary to accommodate in vacuum. Imaging plates can be set under bright lights, this is different from the photographic films. Darkness is only required during exposure and transfer to a reader. Slow Positron Facility at KEK, Japan was used to study the effect of “mono-chromatic” positron beam. Specimens were set just in front of an imaging plate. After a certain time of exposure, the imaging plates were processed by a reader. Used imaging plates can be used repeatedly after erased by ultra-violet lights. Images through samples can be obtained. Similar experiments using non-monochromatic (white) positrons and electrons have been performed at Teikyo University of Science and Technology (TUST) and Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto Univ. (RRI). Sealed ²²Na positron source can be conveniently used for non-destructive tests.     

Eine Atomstrahlquelle für überthermische Energien

A Penning ion source has been used to produce a potassium atomic beam of hyperthermal energies. The energy distribution spreads from below 0.3 eV to about 20 eV. At 1 m distance from the source the current density within a 25% energy window at 1 eV is 2 · 10⁶ atoms · sec^?1· mm^?2.     

研究堆慢正电子源构建中的关键机理问题

研究堆慢正电子源是获得高强度慢正电子束流的有效方式,国际上己建成多座装置并获得广泛应用.与常规同位素慢正电子源相比,研究堆慢正电子源的物理过程复杂,影响末端束流强度的因素众多,对其进行深入研究与合理建模是未来在中国绵阳研究堆(CMRR)上构建慢正电子源的基础.本文厘清了研究堆慢正电子产生的关键过程与物理机理,建立了预测末端正电子束流强度的理论模型,找到了影响其末端强度的主要物理量:快正电子体产生率、慢化体有效表面积、慢化体扩散距离、慢正电子从表面被提取到靶环末端的效率、及束流系统提取效率.用多种实验结果对模型进行校验,包括多个同位素慢正电子源的效率测量值,以及PULSTAR研究堆慢正电子源测量结果,充分验证了模型正确性.根据模型对各物理量的影响因素进行了分析,找到了需着重关注的影响因素,对未来源/靶结构的设计给出建议.     

High-momentum analysis in Doppler spectroscopy

Unique information about the chemical vicinity of positron annihilation sites is provided by the contribution of high electron momenta to the Doppler spectrum, since this momentum range is characteristic for the annihilation with core electrons and hence element specific. However, the corresponding energy region in the spectrum is overlaid by a huge background caused by the annihilation radiation itself and the Compton spectrum of other gamma lines having an energy above 511 keV. Usually these backgrounds are reduced by measuring both annihilation quanta in coincidence.By mathematically analyzing the background contributions, we open another possibility to obtain the high-momentum region employing one single germanium detector. A necessary precondition is employing either background-free positron beams or a low-background positron source, e.g. ⁶⁸Ge, instead of the widely used positron emitter ²²Na. The ⁶⁸Ge-source emits positrons with an endpoint energy of about 1.9 MeV, where as the contribution of gamma quanta having higher energies than the annihilation radiation at 511 keV is negligible low.When analyzing spectra from metals and semiconductors according to the described background subtraction, the same information contained in the momentum range up to 35 × 10⁻³m₀c or beyond can be extracted, as if the spectra were measured employing a coincidence setup with two Ge-detectors.     

Short-living absorption and emission of CsI(Na)

This paper investigates the short-living absorption and the emission of CsI(Na) under a pulsed electron beam (Е_e=0.25 MeV, t_1/2=15 ns and W=0.003…0.16 J/cm²). The bands of singlet self-trapped excitons, as well as Na⁰ and V_k color centers have been detected in the transient absorption spectrum of CsI(Na). It has been found that the activator luminescence spectrum, peaking at 3.0 eV, fits a Gaussian (E_m=3.0 eV and FWHM=0.44±0.02 eV at 80 K) and remains the same at different time delays within 10⁻⁸-10⁻³ s. The decay kinetics of the 3.0 eV emission has one nanosecond exponential component and two microsecond ones with time constants 1.0 and 3.0 μs, which remain unchanged within 78-150 K. It is concluded that the activator emission is due to the radiative annihilation of sodium-perturbed two halide excitons from the non-relaxed singlet state. The pathways of such excitons creation are discussed.