The performance of the solid deuterium ultra-cold neutron source at the
pulsed reactor TRIGA Mainz with a maximum peak energy of 10 MJ is described.
The solid deuterium converter with a volume of V=160 cm3 (8 mol), which is
exposed to a thermal neutron fluence of 4.5x10^13 n/cm2, delivers up to 550 000
UCN per pulse outside of the biological shield at the experimental area. UCN
densities of ~ 10/cm3 are obtained in stainless steel bottles of V ~ 10 L
resulting in a storage efficiency of ~20%. The measured UCN yields compare well
with the predictions from a Monte Carlo simulation developed to model the
source and to optimize its performance for the upcoming upgrade of the TRIGA
Mainz into a user facility for UCN physics.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
