Luminescence Beam Profile Monitor for the RHIC Polarized Hydrogen Jet Polarimeter

A new polarized hydrogen jet target was used to provide improved beam polarization measurements during the second polarized proton run in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The luminescence produced by beam-hydrogen excitations was also used to test the feasibility of a new beam profile monitor for RHIC based on the detection of the emitted light. Lenses, a view-port and a sensitive CCD camera were added to the system to record the optical signals from the interaction chamber. The first very promising results are reported here. The same system with an additional optical spectrometer or optical filter system may be used in the future to detect impurities in the jet, such as oxygen molecules, which affect the accuracy of the polarization measurements.