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

A technique is presented for precision measurements of the area densities, ρT, of approximately 5% radiation length carbon and 208Pb 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%.