The Stern-Gerlach Spectrometer for Charged Particles : A step towards an alternative method for measuring spin

Abstract: The purpose of this project is to investigate the performance of a spectrometer capable of measuring both momentum and spin of particles. More specifically, we investigated what parameters are required in order to separate particles with opposite spins at least 1 mm. This project can serve as the first step in the process of building such a spectrometer. This spectrometer takes the core principles of the Stern-Gerlach device and the modern time-of-flight spectrometer and combines them in order to measure spin in an alternative way; the device would contain, extract and measure particles in the same manner as the time-of-flight spectrometer. However, it would do so by using an inhomogeneous magnetic field rather than a homogeneous one. This separates particles with spin up and down, similar to what was done in the original Stern-Gerlach experiment. During this project, a numerical simulation was developed to identify and test the simplest, realistic design. It was discovered that helium ions require a time of flight of ~1 ms in order to reach a 1 mm spin separation. In this case, a light source with a repetition rate of 1 kHz or slower is required for operation. For electrons, it was found that they require a time of flight ~10 µs in order to achieve the target separation. In this case, the upper limit on the repetition rate of the light source is 100 kHz. Lastly, a set of prescriptions were made for how to improve the simulation and how to operate the device under different conditions.