2020A&A...633A...6E

Aims. We investigate the properties of the polarised radio population in the central 6.5 deg² of the XXL-South field observed at 2.1GHz using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) in 81 pointings with a synthesised beam of FWHM 5.2''. We also investigate the ATCA's susceptibility to polarisation leakage. Methods. We performed a survey of a 5.6 deg² subregion and calculated the number density of polarised sources. We derived the total and polarised spectral indices, in addition to comparing our source positions with those of X-ray-detected clusters. We measured the polarisation of sources in multiple pointings to examine leakage in the ATCA. Results. We find 39 polarised sources, involving 50 polarised source components, above a polarised flux density limit of 0.2mJy at 1.332GHz. The number density of polarised source components is comparable with recent surveys, although there is an indication of an excess at ∼1mJy. We find that those sources coincident with X-ray clusters are consistent in their properties with regard to the general population. In terms of the ATCA leakage response, we find that ATCA mosaics with beam separation of ≤2/3 of the primary beam FWHM have off-axis linear polarisation leakage ≤1.4% at 1.332GHz.