Design and construction of a high-energy photon polarimeter

Abstract

We report on the design and construction of a high-energy photon polarimeter for measuring the degree of polarization of a linearly-polarized photon beam. The photon polarimeter uses the process of pair production on an atomic electron (triplet production). The azimuthal distribution of scattered atomic electrons following triplet production yields information regarding the degree of linear polarization of the incident photon beam. The polarimeter, operated in conjunction with a pair spectrometer, uses a silicon strip detector to measure the recoil electron distribution resulting from triplet photoproduction in a beryllium target foil. The analyzing power $\Sigma_A$ for the device using a 75 $\rm{\mu m}$ beryllium converter foil is about 0.2, with a relative systematic uncertainty in $\Sigma_A$ of 1.5%.