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We plan to have two independent polarimetry systems at MESA based on totally different physical processes. A first one tries to minimize the systematic uncertainties in double polarized Mo/ller scattering, which is to be achieved by stored hydrogen atoms in an atomic trap (Hydro-Mo/ller-Polarimeter). The other one relies on the equality of polarizing and analyzing power which allows to measure the effective analyzing power of a polarimeter with very high accuracy. Since the status of Hydro-Mo/ller is presented in a separate paper we concentrate on the double scattering polarimeter in this article.

Moller and Mott polarimeters have been compared concerning their measurement accuracy in a dedicated "spin dance" experiment. The results obtained with the different polarimeters at vastly different energy ranges were in agreement with each other within the given systematic uncertainties of a few percent. We discuss investigations of background conditions which may allow to reduce this important contribution to the uncertainties in the Mott polarimeter to a value below 1.0%.

A Mott polarimeter operating at energies from 1 to 3.5 MeV and at backward scattering angle of 164 degree has been installed at the MAMI accelerator. Its detection system is based on magnetic spectrometers allowing for efficient background suppression. The useful range of primary currents is between 10 nA and 100 μA, hence adapted to the typical beam currents at MAMI. The reduction of analyzing power due to multiple scattering can be calculated directly from the cross sections with the help of Monte Carlo simulation.

Surface cleaning with a beam of thermally dissociated hydrogen atoms was applied to superlattice cathodes which resulted in a considerable improvement of quantum efficiency. Compared to untreated samples no significant reduction of polarization of the emitted electrons was observed.

This talks addresses the operation of the polarized source at the Mainz Microtron MAMI. The source is operating with selected photocathodes of modulation doped, uniaxially strained layer photocathodes, which results in an average spin polarization of 80% and a quantum efficiency of typically 2 μA/mW. The operative lifetime has been improved by employing a novel activation technique which reduces transmission losses in the vicinity of the cathode. In addition a considerable simplification of the laser system has become possible by improving the power output of laser diode seed lasers so that it is not necessary to employ power amplifier units. It was shown that the potential for increasing the laser power is limited in our setup because of the thermal resistance between cathode and the surrounding electrode.