The Study of Deuterons on Lithium at Low Energies

The nuclear reaction 7Li+d->8Be+n at energies below 200 keV is particularly important to nuclear astrophysics [1]. By using polarized deuterons, tensor analyzing powers as well as cross sections can be extracted and used to understand the reaction mechanisms. Knowledge of reaction details is important for correct extrapolation of the measured cross section to the astrophysically important energies and for comparison with various models. The generation of polarized beams will be discussed, along with the measured observables, experimental techniques, and some preliminary results.