Universal Neutron Spin Flipper

A recent report by the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee entitled “The Scientific Justification for a U.S. Domestic High-Performance Reactor-Based Research Facility” points out that polarized neutrons are increasingly being used to obtain scientific results not available to any other methods in areas as diverse as topological quantum materials, functional materials, soft matter, and biological materials. Because of the importance of polarized neutrons, more than half of the instruments planned for initial deployment at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) Second Target Station (STS) will use polarized neutrons as will 12 of the first 15 instruments planned at the European Spallation Source (ESS). Additional instrumentation using polarized neutrons is also planned for the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Devices to rotate neutron polarization through either 180? or 90?, called flippers, are ubiquitous components of all polarized neutron instruments. While several different devices are currently used for these purposes, there is a need both for higher efficiency and for flippers that can be incorporated easily into recently developed instrumentation that uses polarization neutrons to expand scientific research. Such instrumentation, including the magnetic Wollaston prisms developed by the Adelphi/Indiana team, are now being employed by researchers at the HFIR at ORNL for important research into novel quantum materials and in other areas. We believe that the technology we developed for the Wollaston prisms will allow us to design components that can be assembled into the various types of flipper needed for almost all polarized neutron experiments. In view of the increasing demand for polarized neutrons and the unique scientific information they can provide, we expect several major instrumentation upgrades at both U.S. and foreign neutron centers will require high-efficiency polarized-neutron components over the coming decade, creating a market for the devices we will design. These components will enhance scientists’ abilities to probe both the spatial and time dependence of density fluctuations in a wide range of quantum and multi-scale materials. As stated in the BESAC report cited above, polarized neutrons will “uniquely resolve the complex structures of topological and multiferroic materials” that will underpin the coming revolution in quantum computing and communication.