A pulsed source for polarized electrons with high repetition rate

Abstract A pulsed source of polarized electrons with high intensity and repetition rate is described. It uses the Fano effect on rubidium. The source consist of a frequency quadrupled Nd-laser (5 mJ pulse energy at 266 nm) as light source, and an ray of 20 atomic beams interacting with a circularly polarized light beam. The atomic beam oven is a recycling system to increase the running time. The Mott scattering system permits polarization measurements within 30 s. The source gives 12 ns pulses of 2.2 × 10 9 electrons with a repetition rate of 50 Hz and a polarization of (65±5)%.