2022 article
Growing solid deuterium for UCN production
JOURNAL OF NEUTRON RESEARCH, Vol. 24, pp. 179–191.
author keywords: Solid deuterium; ultra-cold neutrons
content.iospress.com (publisher PDF)
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.