Development of a Polarized Helium-3 Source for RHIC and eRHIC

The addition of a polarized ³He ion source for use at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory would enable a host of new measurements, particularly in the context of a planned eRHIC. We are developing such a source using metastability exchange optical pumping to polarize helium-3, which will be then transferred into RHIC’s Electron Beam Ion Source for ionization. We aim to deliver nuclear polarization of near 70%, and roughly 1011 doubly-ionized ³He++ ions will be created in each 20 μsec pulse. We discuss the design of the source, and the status of its development.