A portable positron accumulator for antihydrogen formation

A pulsed source of positrons has been developed which may be useful for antihydrogen ( ) formation because it is portable when compared to accelerator-based sources. This positron accumulator uses a Penning-style trap to collect moderated positrons from a radioactive source. The positron pulses may be emitted with repetition rates in the range of 50–1000 Hz, which is appropriate for production schemes involving laser-induced recombination. Bunching techniques may be used to vary the width of the positron pulses over the range 30–120 ns (FWHM) to match the width of the antiproton and/or laser pulses. The efficiency of the accumulator increases from ∼ 10% at 100 Hz to ∼ 50% at 1000 Hz. 250 Hz the efficiency is ∼ 25% and the accumulator has delivered up to 8 e + /pulse per mCi of positron activity. This translates into ∼ 1.2 × 10 5 e + /pulse for a 100 Ci 58 Co source.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42929/1/10751_2006_Article_BF02316711.pd