Characterization of ultracold neutron production in thin solid deuterium films at the PSI Ultracold Neutron source


METADATA ONLY
Loading...

Date

2023-03

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

Altmetric
METADATA ONLY

Data

Rights / License

Abstract

We determined the ultracold neutron (UCN) production rate by superthermal conversion in the solid deuterium (sD2) moderator of the UCN source at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). In particular, we considered low amounts of less than 20 mol of D2, deposited on the cooled moderator vessel surfaces in thin films of a few mm in thickness. We measured the isotopic (cHD < 0.2%) and isomeric (cpara ≤ 2.7%) purity of the deuterium to conclude that absorption and up-scattering at 5 K have a negligible effect on the UCN yield from the thin films. We compared the calculated UCN yield based on the previously measured thermal neutron flux from the heavy water thermal moderator with measurements of the UCN count rates at the beamports. We confirmed our results and thus demonstrated an absolute characterization of the UCN production and transport in the source by simulations.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Volume

107 (3)

Pages / Article No.

35501

Publisher

American Physical Society

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Organisational unit

03864 - Kirch, Klaus / Kirch, Klaus check_circle

Notes

Funding

200441 - Precision Physics with Muons and Ultracold Neutrons II (SNF)

Related publications and datasets