Applications of Neutron Interferometry and Structured Neutron Beams

Summary

Neutrons are a powerful probe of matter and physics due to their Angstrom size wavelengths, electric neutrality and relatively large mass. In this project, we develop quantum sensors that exploit these attributes to increases the precision of measurements of fundamental forces and materials structure. With David Cory, Alexander Cronin of the University of Arizona, Han Wen of National Institute of Healthand collaborators at NIST, we engineer structure into neutron beams in the form of spatially correlated spin, phase, linear and angular momentum to create novel neutron interferometers.  Examples include, three-phase grating interferometers capable of high precision measurements of the gravitational constant, and phase contrast imaging to map the internal structure of quantum materials.

Figure 1. An experimental configuration for quantum sensing via structured neutron probes and interferometry. Such experiments can be applied for measurements of the gravitational constant, for phase contrast neutron imaging and for mapping the internal structure of quantum materials.