Abstract
Spherical neutron polarimetry is a powerful polarized neutron scattering technique used to determine complex magnetic structures which are only partly accessible by other methods. This technique measures the full neutron polarization change upon scattering from a sample by fully decoupling the incoming and outgoing neutron polarization with a zero-field chamber placed at the sample position. Recent advancements and testing are presented for a new spherical neutron polarimetry device utilizing high-Tc superconducting YBCO films, PHiTPAD, at the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Furthermore, we introduce a conceptual design that utilizes wavelength-independent adiabatic transitions to adapt spherical neutron polarimetry for use with pulsed neutron sources, thereby expanding its potential applications in neutron scattering research.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 17194 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2025 |
Funding
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Early Career Research Program Award KC0402010, under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. This research used resources at the High Flux Isotope Reactor and the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facilities operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We thank Mike Harrington, Gary Taufer, Josh Pierce and Shirely Xu for experiment support. We thank Fankang Li and Roger Pynn for insightful discussion. We acknowledge useful discussion with Jacob Tosado.
Keywords
- Adiabatic transition
- Larmor precession
- Meissner effect
- Polarized neutron scattering
- Spherical neutron polarimetry