Abstract
Biconcave cylindrical lenses are used to focus beams of x rays or neutrons using the refractive properties of matter. In the case of neutrons, the refractive properties of magnetic induction can similarly focus and simultaneously polarize the neutron beam without the concomitant attenuation of matter. This concept of a magnetic refractive lens was tested using a compound lens consisting of 99 pairs of cylindrical permanent magnets. The assembly successfully focused the intensity of a white beam of cold neutrons of one spin state at the detector, while defocusing the other. This experiment confirmed that a lens of this nature may boost the intensity locally by almost an order of magnitude and create a polarized beam. An estimate of the performance of a more practically dimensioned device suitable for incorporation in reflectometers and slit-geometry small angle scattering instruments is given.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 035101 |
| Journal | Review of Scientific Instruments |
| Volume | 78 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2007 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
The authors would like to thank R. Kleb and R. Vitt of the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (ANL) for their technical assistance during the initial developments of the project, and Dihong Yu (ANSTO) for support during the experiment on ASTERIX. Work at Argonne was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. This work has benefited from the use of the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at LANSCE, which is funded the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by Los Alamos National Security LLC under DOE Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25396.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Office of Basic Energy Sciences | |
| Office of Sciences | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Los Alamos National Laboratory |