Large-Scale Fabrication of Super-Mirror Reflection Surfaces for Neutron Guides

Fabrication of neutron super mirrors is a highly sophisticated technology requiring precise controlled layering of thousands of nanometer thin metal films. Neutron super mirrors are needed for guiding and focusing neutrons for diverse research areas including quantum materials, soft matter, materials and engineering, chemistry, and biosciences. There is a lack of domestic vendors of such mirrors. Current methods of fabrication are slow and capital intensive. To address this challenge, we propose to develop a novel Hot Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition method to fabricate multilayer neutron super mirrors. Hot Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition method can deposit dense, thin films approximately fifty to hundred times faster than current method of magnetron sputtering deposition. Hot wire chemical vapor method can maintain high quality sharp interface features by minimizing interlayer diffusion of atoms. Proposed method is also less capital intensive and is estimated to save more than fifty percent in the overall cost of neutron mirror fabrication. The Phase I project efforts will involve development and demonstration of the proposed hot wire multilayer nanometer thick metal coating technology for neutron mirrors. Experiments will be conducted characterizing reflectivity, and polarization maintenance. Preliminary Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Analysis for scaling, and implementation, will be conducted. Phase II of the project will study more detailed hot wire chemical vapor deposition coating recipes including variations in morphology of multilayers, material composition, pressure, temperature, and coating layer thickness, along with detailed techno-economic and lifecycle analyses. The development of such innovative high deposition rate and efficient technology will have many applications in other fields of micro electro-mechanical systems, solar array fabrication, protective coatings, flexible electronics, quantum computing and biomedical.