An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
A Large Beam High Efficiency Radio Frequency Neutron Spin Flipper
Published
Author(s)
Wangchun Chen, Ross W. Erwin, Peter Tsai, Md. T. Hassan, Nancy Hadad, Charles F. Majkrzak
Abstract
A design for a radio-frequency (RF) neutron spin flipper obtained from magneto-static and neutron spin transport simulations is presented. The RF flipper constructed from this design provides a flipping probability of 0.999 or better for a beam size 6 cm wide and 15 cm high and a wavelength band between 0.4 nm and 0.6 nm. Three permanent magnet compression guide field sections with air gaps provide a large cross-sectional area linear field gradient along the beam propagation direction. An RF oscillator based on coupling the resonant coil of a Hartley oscillator to the excitation coil was developed which provides a higher current, and thereby a larger RF amplitude, as compared to a conventional RF power amplifier. Two opaque 3He neutron spin filters were employed to measure the flipping probability of the flipper with very high precision. A spatially uniform flipping probability of 0.9995(2) or higher was measured over the large cross-sectional area neutron guide. This RF neutron spin flipper will be employed in a polychromatic beam reflectometer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research. This design can be applied to other polarized neutron instruments or applications requiring a very high continuous flipping probability of the neutron spin for a large cross-sectional area beam.
Citation
Review of Scientific Instruments
Volume
92
Issue
6
Pub Type
Journals
Keywords
radio-frequency neutron spin flipper, opaque3He spin filter, flipping probability, magneto-static simulation, polarized-beam transport using Schrodinger-Pauli
Chen, W.
, Erwin, R.
, Tsai, P.
, Hassan, M.
, Hadad, N.
and Majkrzak, C.
(2021),
A Large Beam High Efficiency Radio Frequency Neutron Spin Flipper, Review of Scientific Instruments
(Accessed June 3, 2023)