Progress on a Polarized 3He++ Ion Source for the EIC

A high intensity (2 x 10¹¹ ions per pulse) polarized 3He++ ion source is being developed at BNL for use at the future Electron Ion Collider (EIC). The helium gas will be polarized using a novel technique based on metastability-exchange optical pumping in the 5T field of the existing Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS), where it can be ionized and prepared for injection into the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS). An infrared laser system has been developed for optical pumping and measuring the polarization of the gas inside of the EBIS field. Previous results in a test setup have shown up to 80% polarization for ultra-pure 3He in an "open" cell configuration, with isolation valve and refilling tubes closed. Now, the setup has been moved into an exact copy of the EBIS magnet to prepare for final integration and injection into AGS. In this talk, the Metastability Exchange Optical Pumping scheme used to polarize the 3He++ sample will be presented and the current state of the project at BNL will be discussed.