Imprinted spiral structures as neutron polarizers

W. Lohstroh, G. P. Felcher, R. Goyette, M. Münzenberg, W. Felsch

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Neutron diffraction from magnetic spiral structures is governed by strong selection rules for the polarization of the outgoing beam. When the sample is entirely of one chirality - for instance a right-handed spiral - the neutrons diffracted by some Bragg reflections are fully polarized. While the scattering theory has been formulated long ago, attempts to controllably modify the population of left-handed and right-handed spiral domains in natural magnetic structures (which for instance occur in some rare-earth metals) have been largely unsuccessful. In contrast, we have been able to imprint helical magnetic structures in La/Fe multilayers (each layer approximately 30 angstroms thick) simply by rotating the growing sample in a weak external field (3 Oe). A first estimate is given of the efficiency of these multilayers as polarizers of neutron beams.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)352-354
Number of pages3
JournalPhysica B: Physics of Condensed Matter
Volume267-268
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1999
Externally publishedYes
EventProceedings of the 1998 2nd International Workshop on Polarised Neutrons for Condensed Matter Investigations, PNCMI '98 - Grenoble
Duration: Sep 21 1998Sep 23 1998

Funding

Work in Göttingen was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft within SFB 345. Work at Argonne was supported by US department of energy, Basic Energy Science, Material Science contract #W-31-109-ENG-38.

FundersFunder number
Basic Energy Science, Material Science-31-109-ENG-38
U.S. Department of Energy
Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftSFB 345

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