Neutron Optics

The description of neutron optical phenomena within the framework of dynamical diffraction theory is described. The coherent wave and optical potential are introduced, and an expression for the complex neutron refractive index in terms of the scattering length density and attenuation coefficient is obtained. The extension to magnetic media and polarized neutrons is covered. Neutron reflectivity is defined, and the wavevector dependence of the reflectivity profile is derived by a transfer matrix method and an optical method. Exact results are compared with the Born approximation. The technique of neutron imaging is described, including neutron radiography and computed tomography. Several optical phenomena that occur in Bragg diffraction from near-perfect crystals, including Pendellösung oscillations, and primary and secondary extinction.

Measurements of Entropic Uncertainty Relations in Neutron Optics

The emergence of the uncertainty principle has celebrated its 90th anniversary recently. For this occasion, the latest experimental results of uncertainty relations quantified in terms of Shannon entropies are presented, concentrating only on outcomes in neutron optics. The focus is on the type of measurement uncertainties that describe the inability to obtain the respective individual results from joint measurement statistics. For this purpose, the neutron spin of two non-commuting directions is analyzed. Two sub-categories of measurement uncertainty relations are considered: noise–noise and noise–disturbance uncertainty relations. In the first case, it will be shown that the lowest boundary can be obtained and the uncertainty relations be saturated by implementing a simple positive operator-valued measure (POVM). For the second category, an analysis for projective measurements is made and error correction procedures are presented.

Generation and detection of spin-orbit coupled neutron beams

Spin-orbit coupling of light has come to the fore in nanooptics and plasmonics, and is a key ingredient of topological photonics and chiral quantum optics. We demonstrate a basic tool for incorporating analogous effects into neutron optics: the generation and detection of neutron beams with coupled spin and orbital angular momentum. The 3He neutron spin filters are used in conjunction with specifically oriented triangular coils to prepare neutron beams with lattices of spin-orbit correlations, as demonstrated by their spin-dependent intensity profiles. These correlations can be tailored to particular applications, such as neutron studies of topological materials.