Development of an Active 238UF6 Gas Target

At the superconducting 130 MeV Darmstadt electron linac S-DALINAC a new source of spin-polarized electrons using a GaAs cathode has been installed, opening the path for experiments with polarized electron and photon beams for nuclear structure studies at low momentum transfers, e.g., the search for forward-backward asymmetries originating from parity non-conservation (PNC) in the photon-induced fission process of 238U.Detailed studies of different properties, e.g., the energy dependence of fission modes, the population of fission isomers, or the search for (PNC) effects in the photon-induced fission process of 238U, depends on high quality data, therefore needing high luminosities. An active gas target containing uranium may overcome the problem that large solid target thicknesses cause poor energy and angular resolution.A single Frisch-grid ionization chamber has been built to test a mixture of standard counting gases (e.g., argon) with depleted uraniumhexafluoride (238UF6) using a triple alpha source, evaluating signal quality and drift velocity. For mass fractions up to 2 percent of 238U in the counting gas. The drift velocity increases with rising UF6 content, while a good signal quality and energy resolution is preserved.