Polarization Measurements and Optical-Model Potential for Tritons

Abstract

The recent installation of a polarized-triton-ion source on the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory tandem Van de Graaff accelerator has allowed the measurement of analyzing powers for triton elastic scattering over a wide range of angles. The data obtained from scattering polarized tritons on $^{52}\mathrm{Cr}$, $^{60}\mathrm{Ni}$, $^{90}\mathrm{Zr}$, and $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ show unexpectedly large analyzing powers at backward angles. This leads to spin-orbit well depths greater than predicted by an optical-model analysis based on folding-model calculations.