Annealing of a pre-assembled tungsten positron moderator by direct electron bombardment

Abstract

We have developed a positron moderator annealing system with a handmade electron gun which allows the pre-assembled moderator temperature to be monitored directly during heating. The moderator, composed of strips of tungsten arranged in a regular lattice, was heated by bombarding electrons emitted from a hot tungsten filament. Moderator annealing was successfully achieved up to a temperature of 2600 °C in the central region of the moderator with a thermionic power of about 1200 W. Positron annihilation lifetimemeasurements of as-received and annealed tungsten foils were performed using a pulsed slow positron beam. As a result, it was confirmed that residual defects contained in the as-received tungsten foil were eliminated by conducting the annealing process.