Tilted foil polarization of radioactive beam nuclei

Abstract

Tilted foil polarization has up to now been mostly applied to nuclear reaction products recoiling out of a target traversed by a primary particle beam. Being a universal phenomenon it can be applied equally well to beams of particles, primary or secondary, radioactive or other. There are however some technical considerations arising from the nature of the beam particles. Radioactive beams are associated with ground state nuclei. They usually have low nuclear spin and as a consequence-as will be shown later-low polarization. Secondary beams are usually low in intensity and do not impose any constraints on the foils they traverse; unlike intense primary heavy ion beams which, if they traverse the foils, essentially limit the foil material to carbon. We review here briefly the tilted foil polarization process and then discuss an experiment with an isomer beam. Finally we review experiments with radioactive beams, past, present and planned for the future.