2022 article

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Growing solid deuterium for UCN production

JOURNAL OF NEUTRON RESEARCH, Vol. 24, pp. 179–191.

By: E. Korobkina ⁿ, I. Berkutov ⁿ, R. Golub ⁿ, P. Huffman ⁿ , C. Hickman ⁿ, K. Leung ⁿ , G. Medlin ⁿ, M. Morano ⁿ ...and 4 other NC State authors, T. Rao ⁿ, C. Teander ⁿ , C. White ⁿ & A. Young ⁿ 

author keywords: Solid deuterium; ultra-cold neutrons

10.3233/JNR-220010

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Source: Web Of Science

Added: February 20, 2023

We have experimentally studied growing a large (about 1 liter) ortho-deuterium crystal in a real UCN source cryostat and recorded the growing process optically using a camera. The best quality was observed when growing the crystal directly from a vapor phase. The crystal was grown at different mass flows of deuterium and annealed at different temperatures. Optimum conditions were found for both, obtaining an optically transparent crystal and cooling it down with minimal damage. We found that the quality, final shape and changes during annealing of the crystal are very much dependent on the temperature profile of the cryostat walls.