In-situ Polarized 3He system for the Magnetism Reflectometer at the Spallation Neutron Source

Published

July 2, 2012

Author(s)

Thomas R. Gentile, X Tong, C Y. Jiang, V Lauter, H. Ambaye, D. Brown, L Crow, R J. Goyette, W-T Lee, A. Parizzi

Abstract

We report on the in-situ polarized 3He neutron polarization analyzer developed for the time-of-flight Magnetism Reflectometer (MAGICS) at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Using the spin exchange optical pumping (SEOP) method we achieved a 3He polarization of 76 % +/- 1% and maintained it for the entire 3 day duration of the test experiment. Based on transmission measurements with unpolarized neutrons, we show that the analyzing efficiency of the 3He system is >99 % for the neutron wavelength band from 3 A to 5 A . Using a highly polarized incident neutron beam produced by a supermirror bender polarizer, we obtained a flipping ratio >100 of with a transmission of 25 % for polarized neutrons, averaged over the wavelength band of 2 A to 5 A. After the cell was depolarized for transmission measurements, we re-polarized it and this performance was maintained for 3 weeks. A high quality polarization analysis experiment was performed on a reference sample of Fe/Cr multilayer with strong spin-flip off-specular scattering. Using a combination of the position sensitive detector, time-of-flight method and the excellent parameters of the 3He cell the polarization analysis of the 2-dimensional maps of reflected, refracted and offspecular scattered intensity above and below the horizon were obtained simultaneously.

Citation

Review of Scientific Instruments

Volume

83

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Magnetism Reflectometer, unpolarized neutrons, time-of-flight

Citation

, T. , Tong, X. , Jiang, C. , Lauter, V. , Ambaye, H. , Brown, D. , Crow, L. , Goyette, R. , Lee, W. and Parizzi, A. (2012), In-situ Polarized 3He system for the Magnetism Reflectometer at the Spallation Neutron Source, Review of Scientific Instruments, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=911438 (Accessed October 6, 2025)