Operational experience with the FSU optically pumped polarized lithium ion source

The dye-laser optically pumped polarized 6,7Li- ion source of the FSU tandem-linac heavy-ion accelerator has completed its first year of operation. The ion source has produced highly polarized beams of 6Li for nuclear physics experiments with on-target currents of 6Li3+ greater than 150 nA. Absolute measurements of the on-target 6Li polarization have yielded Pyy = -1.33±0.02 and Py>0.74±0.03 for the nuclear tensor and vector polarization, respectively. No loss of polarization due to acceleration by the linac booster was observed. (orig.)