Design of a Lamb-Shift Polarimeter for ${}^3$He Ions and Atoms

Abstract

In high energy physics experiments ${}^3$He${}^{2+}$ nucleons are suitable to test the internal structure of neutrons, which makes them the perfect substitute. Moreover, it is one of the atomic species for which high polarization values are achievable through the use of optical pumping methods. Therefore, nuclear polarized sources for ${}^3$He${}^{2+}$ ions are currently in development. Consequently, detector systems validating their nuclear polarization value need to be established. Such a detector system, based on the Lamb-shift polarimeter, is introduced in this work. Its advantage is that it can operate at low energies in the range of 10 to 100 keV, which makes preacceleration unnecessary. In addition, a fast evaluation of the nuclear polarization within seconds leads to shorter disruptions for beam times.

In the introduction and the conclusion we mixed up the Q-value of the tritium decay and the kinetic energy of the 3He atom after the bound-beta decay. Therefore, we must modify the method how the Lamb-shift polarimeter can be used to measure the nuclear polarization of these atoms