Thin Teflon film walls for a polarized-gas target cell

Immersion coating, spray coating, stretching, and roll-reduction methods have been explored in work to produce pinhole-free films of Teflon that are 5 cm × 30 cm in area and less than 500 μg/cm2 thick. A method to produce these films by rolling thicker, commerically available films will be described. The defining characteristics and limitations encountered with each of the other preparation methods also are presented. f the self-supporting Teflon films form the walls of an open-ended cell used to increase the density of a polarized-hydrogen target [M.A. Ross et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 344 (1994) 307; W.A. Dezarn et al., these Proceedings (17th World Conf. of the INTDS, Bloomington, IN, USA, 1994) Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 362 (1995) 36]. At a wall thickness of 500 μg/cm2, roughly half the thickness of commerically available film, detection of recoil protons became possible.