Pyrex window with interior DPS coating

1. p + 3He Ecm = 1.69 MeV Spherical Pyrex is cell shown with copper-covered Kapton foil epoxied over the window openings. A strip of unused copper-covered foil is shown beneath the cell. Our tests showed that this material combination for window covering did not provide enhanced 3He polarization lifetime over bare Kapton foil, perhaps because the foil wrinkled and the interior copper film fractured when the cell was evacuated before filling it with polarized 3He gas. High-pressure cell with interior MgO coating Light from neutron scattering event Incident neutron beam Pyrex window with interior DPS coating Photomultiplier tube Vacuum evaporator system in which microscope slides were coated with thin films of diphenylstilbene and Kapton foil was coated with 1µm films of copper. The material to be evaporated was heated by passing a current through the tantalum boat. Slides and Kapton foils to be coated were placed on the rectangular frame shown. Evaporations typically were begun after a vacuum of ~10-5 bar was attained and could then be accomplished in a few minutes. Development of Polarized 3He Target Cells for Proton and Neutron ScatteringR.B. Neufeld a, T. Katabuchi a,b, T. B. Clegg a,b, T.V. Daniels a,b, S. Kadlecek cTriangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory a,†, Durham, NC 27708-0308, University of North Carolina b, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255Amersham Health c, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 † Work supported in part by US DOE Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics Motivation and Goal* 3He Target Cell for Protons < 6 MeV • DesignRequirements – A successful cell must: • Withstand the ~1 bar 3He interior pressure needed for experiments; • Have thin foil windows for passage of incident and scattered protons; • Be fabricated from materials which minimize loss of 3He polarization. • 3He(p,p) and 3He(n,n) at low energies • Mass-3 System • A 3-nucleon force is needed to predict 3H and 3He binding energies • Ay data disagree with theoretical predictions ( the “Ay puzzle”) • Mass-4 System • Effort is turning to 4-nucleon-system where p-wave resonant states exist at very low energies. • Ay Puzzle • Recent theoretical effort shows that the “Ay Puzzle” persists • Effects are larger in mass-4 system than in the mass-3 system. • New data needed • New target analyzing power and spin-correlation data are sought below Ep= 6 MeV to resolve theoretical ambiguities. • Aoy and Ayy are the first objective. • Prior Research – Earlier work* had shown that: • Pyrex cells can provide the desired 3He polarization lifetimes (»3 hrs); • Both cylindrical and spherical Pyrex cells are easy to fabricate; • Kapton or 99.99% pure Al or Cu foils are potential window materials; • Kapton foil is stronger per unit thickness than pure Al or Cu; • Al and Cu surfaces enable longer 3He polarization lifetime than Kapton. • New Developments – In our research, we: • Simulated cell geometries, 3He pressures, plus foil window materials and thickness using Monte-Carlo energy-loss code SRIM, to find the combination enabling minimum proton energy loss and straggling; • Determined bursting pressures for test cells of different geometries with Al or Kapton foil windows of various thicknesses glued on using Varian TorrSeal epoxy. • Evaporated ~1µm films of pure Cu onto Kapton seeking a cell window to hold 1 bar pressure and provide longer 3He polarization lifetime. *Ph.D. thesis of B.M. Fisher, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2003 3He Target Cell for Neutrons < 10 MeV • DesignRequirements – A successful cell must: • Withstand the 15 to 20 bar 3He interior pressures which experiments require; • Provide a timing pulse for scattered neutron time-of-flight measurements; • Be fabricated from materials which minimize loss of 3He polarization. • Prior Research – Earlier work* had shown that: • A 1% mixture of Xe with the 3He provides a light pulse when a neutron scatters; • An interior MgO wall coating on the target cell reflects this light efficiently; • Diphenylstilbene window coating is a good • wave-length shifter for light emerging to phototube. *T. Katabuchi et al., Proc. of HELION02 http://www.physik.uni-mainz.de/helion02/and private communication. Summary of Results • New Developments – In our research, we: • Evaporated films of Diphenylstilbene (DPS) and Magnesium Oxide (MgO) onto microscope slides; • Exposed these coated slides to polarized 3He at ~1 bar pressure to determine the surfaces’ influence on the polarization lifetime. • Determined the effective 3He polarization lifetime if covering a 150 cm3 cell to be 5.7 hrs for diphenylstilbene and 2.2 hrs for magnesium oxide. • For 3He (p,p) Target Cell • A spherical 50 cm3 Pyrex cell with 75µm thick Kapton-covered windows withstands ~1 bar pressures and provide polarization lifetimes of >4hr; • This cell will facilitate 3He(p,p) scattering for incident proton energies as low as 2 MeV and for outgoing particle scattering angles up to 120º. • Cu-covered Kapton does not further enhance 3He polarization lifetime. For 3He (n,n) Target Cell • Diphenylstilbene is very compatible with polarized 3He gas; MgO is marginally compatible, so alternative reflective coatings will be sought. Future Plans • We will use the Pyrex target cell with Kapton windows for 2 to 6 MeV 3He(p,p) analyzing power and spin correlation measurements. We will continue development of a target cell for the 3He(n,n) measurements. Frame for slides Tantalum boat * W. Tornow et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods 133 (1976) 435.