High resolution neutron Larmor diffraction using superconducting magnetic Wollaston prisms

High resolution neutron Larmor diffraction using superconducting magnetic Wollaston prisms

Li, Fankang (Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Indiana University - Purdue University)
Feng, Hao (Indiana University - Purdue University)
Thaler, Alexander N. (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Parnell, S.R. (TU Delft RST/Fundamental Aspects of Materials and Energy)
Hamilton, William A. (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Crow, Lowell (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Yang, Wencao (Indiana University - Purdue University)
Jones, Amy B. (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Bai, Hongyu (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Matsuda, Masaaki (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Baxter, David V. (Indiana University - Purdue University)
Keller, Thomas (Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung)
Fernandez-Baca, Jaime A. (Oak Ridge National Laboratory; University of Tennessee)
Pynn, Roger (Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Indiana University - Purdue University)

2017-04-13

The neutron Larmor diffraction technique has been implemented using superconducting magnetic Wollaston prisms in both single-arm and double-arm configurations. Successful measurements of the coefficient of thermal expansion of a single-crystal copper sample demonstrates that the method works as expected. The experiment involves a new method of tuning by varying the magnetic field configurations in the device and the tuning results agree well with previous measurements. The difference between single-arm and double-arm configurations has been investigated experimentally. We conclude that this measurement benchmarks the applications of magnetic Wollaston prisms in Larmor diffraction and shows in principle that the setup can be used for inelastic phonon line-width measurements. The achievable resolution for Larmor diffraction is comparable to that using Neutron Resonance Spin Echo (NRSE) coils. The use of superconducting materials in the prisms allows high neutron polarization and transmission efficiency to be achieved.

Characterization and analytical techniques

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9b56bb6c-0119-44f1-87a0-9af5d4c65129

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-00740-5

2045-2322

Scientific Reports, 7

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2017 Fankang Li, Hao Feng, Alexander N. Thaler, S.R. Parnell, William A. Hamilton, Lowell Crow, Wencao Yang, Amy B. Jones, Hongyu Bai, Masaaki Matsuda, David V. Baxter, Thomas Keller, Jaime A. Fernandez-Baca, Roger Pynn