Polarization of Bremsstrahlung

Abstract

An attempt has been made to measure the polarization of radiation from an 11· 5 MeV synchrotron. The method used was to load a photographic emulsion with heavy water, expose it with its plane normal to the beam, and measure the orientation and range of photoprotons from the 2H(,,(,p)n reaction. It has been confirmed experimentally (Wilkinson 1952) that protons from this reaction exhibit a cos2 distribution about the direction of the electric vector of plane polarized radiation, which means that the reaction may be used to reveal polarization.