ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

This is a page describing data taken during an experiment at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source. Information about the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source can be found at https://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk.


Quantifying strain/stress in small perfect crystal neutron interferometers

Abstract: We have fabricated two perfect silicon crystal neutron interferometers (NI) that are well-suited for various fundamental physics applications. The interferometers are small and will be used to test aspects of dynamical diffraction (DD) theory, which describes how neutrons and X-rays propagate through perfect crystals. The main goal with be to analyze the strain/stress and imperfections in the perfect crystal interferometer base and blades as these things vastly alter the contrast of the interferometer. This work also provides unique tests for the recently developed quantum information model for DD theory that is ideally suited for studying complex crystal geometries, strains/stress, and/or imperfections that are beyond the scope of the standard theory of DD. The experiment will analyze the Bragg diffracted beams at IMAT and measure the contrast of the two perfect crystal neutron interferometers. We will use the quantum information model for DD to compare with experimental results and quantify effects that alter the interference pattern such as temperature gradients or vibrations and consider crystal defects, strain/stress, surface roughness and machining imperfections. This work is of fundamental interest in the neutron science community as any experiments involving perfect crystals rely on DD theory which can be uniquely tested with the smaller interferometers.

Principal Investigator: Professor Dmitry Pushin
Experimenter: Mr Naume Shentevski
Experimenter: Dr Jeremy Paster
Experimenter: Dr Charles Clark
Experimenter: Mr Owen Lailey
Experimenter: Dr Michael Huber
Local Contact: Dr Winfried Kockelmann
Experimenter: Professor Dusan Sarenac

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2510504

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2510504

Part DOI Instrument Public release date Download Link
10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2510504-1 IMAT 31 July 2028 Download

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
Select the data format above to find out more about it.

Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Dmitry Pushin et al; (2025): Quantifying strain/stress in small perfect crystal neutron interferometers, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2510504

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.



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