Source of polarized hydrogen molecules

Abstract A novel source of polarized hydrogen and deuterium molecules has been tested. The use of sextupole superconducting magnets allows us to select molecules with the nuclear spin projection −1 for hydrogen and −2 for deuterium. The measured beam intensity of polarized hydrogen molecules for the nozzle temperature range of 6.5–30 K and a gas flow rate up to 5 ⋅ 1 0 − 2 Torr ⋅ l ∕ s is presented. The measured flux of polarized hydrogen molecules of ≈ 3 ⋅ 1 0 12 mol ∕ s is in reasonable agreement with estimations. The obtained results can be used as a basis for the development of a high-intensity source of polarized molecules.