The Polarized Electron Source at ELSA.

At the electron stretcher accelerator ELSA in Bonn a pulsed 50 kV inverted gun of polarized electrons has been in operation since February 2000. A strained-layer superlattice crystal is used to deliver a beam with a polarization of about 80 %. A flashlamp-pumped Ti-Sapphire laser with a pulse repetition rate of 50 Hz serves as source of light. The gun is operated in space charge limitation. The current can be chosen by varying the distance between cathode and anode. With 1 μs pulses of 100 mA the source was particularly used together with a polarized target for a GDH sum rule experiment. The high photocathode lifetime allows continuous operation at 100 mA typically for periods of about two weeks without maintenance. So far no change of the crystal was necessary. © 2003 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]