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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 February 2012
A prototype source of polarised electrons is described, in which electrons trapped by a combination of electric and magnetic fields are polarised through spin exchange interaction with a polarised beam of potassium atoms. Under typical operating conditions, a pulsed electron beam was extracted with 104 electrons per pulse and a polarisation of 0·45 at a repetition rate of 50 S−1. The scope for improvement of these figures is briefly discussed.
Values for the total spin exchange collision cross-section at electron energies of 1 eV, 2·5 eV and 4 eV were obtained. These are in reasonable agreement with theoretical predictions.