Polarized 3He spin-filters using MEOP for wide-angle polarization analysis

Polarized He-3 spin-filters are currently employed on a wide range of neutron instruments at the ILL, primarily for diffraction, reflectometry and fundamental physics. A wide range of recent and ongoing improvements are enabling the implementation of this technique for wide-angle polarization analysis for inelastic measurements. These include Progress in metastability-exchange optical pumping (MEOP), resulting in on-beam polarization levels of up to 80%. 1st generation "Pastis-1" coils for rotating the neutron polarization at the sample position, allowing for "XYZ" polarization analysis. 2nd generation "Pastis-2" coils with no blind angles in the equatorial plane. Spin-filter cells with glued silicon windows, allowing for wide-angle "banana" cells with very low background scattering. Polarization-preserving capillaries for transferring polarized He-3 gas into the cell without manual access. The development of capillary transfer also allows for a completely new way of working with He-3 spin-filters: connecting the cells on the instruments directly to the MEOP filling station several tens of meters away and allowing for quasi-continuous operation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.