Reference

Photo gallery

Tyrex-2 at work and its team: from left to right: Philippe, Nicolas, David.
Another overall view of Tyrex-2 as seen from the laser side.
The ³He gas is circulated in 10 horizontal tubes where the lights of the lasers polarises the ³He atomic spins through a Metastability Exchange Optical Pumping (MEOP).
The 9 vertical magnetic coils apply to the assembly the magnetic field required to maintain the polarisation of the ³He atoms.
A closer view of the stack of lasers.
Tyrex-2 as seen from the compressor and filling station side.
A closer view of the compressor part.
Two typical ³He cells. The cells are under vacuum (10^-9 mbar/L/s), their inside is coated with rubidium distilled at the ILL, and they have a non-magnetic pneumatic valve designed by the ILL's ³He lab.
- Left: ³He analyser cell for PASTIS-3 (IN20). This cell covers an angle of 102° with a gas thickness of 55mm over a height of 50mm. It is made up of curved silicon wafers polished to 10Å and 2 Borofloat plates from Schott assembled at the ³He lab with special glue for vacuum tightness.
- Right: polariser cell (70 mm long, 50 mm in diameter). This cell has two polished silicon windows at 10Å molecularly bonded by the ILL to a borosilicate body also from Schott. It is 50mm in diameter with a gas thickness of 70mm.
Nicolas shows the cell designed for PASTIS3 (a polarised ³He device, with orientation of the magnetic field in all possible directions) which polarises and analyses neutrons on the TAS spectrometer IN20.
The variety of polarised ³He cells in use. Their size and shape and the material their walls are made of are adapted to the specific needs of each neutron spectrometer.