A magnetic spectrometer and counter telescope system was used to detect positive pions photoproduced singly in a liquid hydrogen target. Measurements of the differential cross section were made at mean laboratory photon energies, k = 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 GeV and in the angular range from 5° to 165 ° in the center-of-momentum system of the pion.
The shape of the angular distribution of the differential cross sections at each value of k is very similar to that of the previously measured distribution at k = 1.0 GeV. The angular distributions were integrated to give the total cross sections. The third pion-nucleon "resonance" peak is seen to be very close to k = 1.0 GeV. A leveling off of the total cross section at k = 1.4 GeV may be due to the fourth "resonance".
The accurate small angle data at k = 1.1 and 1.2 GeV permitted a reasonable extrapolation of the differential cross section to the pion-nucleon pole. The value of the pion-nucleon coupling constant, f, was extracted from this extrapolation. The result was f^2 = 0.078 ± 0.011.