Nuclear targets for a precision measurement of the neutral pion radiative width

A technique is presented for precision measurements of the area densities, rho T, of approximately 5% radiation length carbon and Pb-208 targets used in an experiment at Jefferson Laboratory to measure the neutral pion radiative width. The precision obtained in the area density for the carbon target is +/- 0.050%, and that obtained for the lead target through an X-ray attenuation technique is +/- 0.43%. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.