A polarized HD target factory in Europe

Highly polarized hydrogen molecules in the solid phase are of primary interest as "polarizcd targets" for Nuclear Physics experiments and polarized fuel for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF). Within the French-Italian GRAAL collaboration, we are constructing a new Polarized HD Target Factory, implanted at IPN Orsay. It consists of a powerful Dilution Refrigerator (12 muW at 10 mK) equipped with a 16.5T superconducting magnet and several ancillary cryostats for condensation, storage, transfer and transport of polarized IID samples. The primary objective is to produce polarized HD targets (HYDILE project) for the photoproduction experiments with the GRAAL polarized high energy real photon beams, obtained from backscattering of laser light against the electron stored in the ESRF ring at Grenoble. Production of targets for other sites is forseen. The system will be described and the results already obtained for the static polarization of a HD sample will be given. The possibility to investigate dynamic polarization methods for HD and apply them to DT in order to produce polarized DT fuel for fusion will be discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.