Clark, C.
, Pushin, D.
, Huber, M.
, Zhernenkov, K.
, White, J.
, Debeer-Schmitt, L.
, Cory, D.
, Ekinici, H.
, Henderson, M.
, Lailey, O.
and Sarenac, D.
(2024),
Generation of Neutron Airy Beams, Nature
(Accessed October 13, 2025)
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Generation of Neutron Airy Beams
Published
Author(s)
, Dmitry Pushin, , Kirill Zhernenkov, Jonathan White, Lisa DeBeer-Schmitt, David Cory, Huseyin Ekinici, Melissa Henderson, Owen Lailey, Dusan Sarenac
Abstract
The Airy wave packet is a solution to the potential-free Schr¨odinger equation that exhibits remark-able properties such as self-acceleration, non-diffraction, and self-healing. Although Airy beams are now routinely realized with electromagnetic waves and electrons, the implementation with neutrons remained elusive due to small transverse coherence lengths, low fluence rates, and the absence of neutron lenses. In this work, we overcome these challenges through a holographic approach and present the first experimental demonstration of neutron Airy beams. The presented techniques pave the way for fundamental physics studies with Airy beams of non-elementary particles, the development of novel neutron optics components, and the realization of neutron Airy-vortex beams.Citation
Nature
Pub Type
Journals
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Created July 28, 2024, Updated November 8, 2024