Achievements in Neutron Interferometry

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVESThe neutron, a seemingly simple, yet exquisitely complex particle, was discovered over 60 years ago by Chadwick.' Elasser first suggested that the motion of neutrons would be determined by quantum mechanics such that they would be diffracted by crystalline matter.2 This was soon verified experimentally by Halban and Preiswerk) and by Mitchell and Powers4 using very weak (by today's standards) radiumberyllium neutron sources. With the advent of nuclear reactors after the Second World War and the subsequent construction of high-flux research reactors using highly enriched U-235 fuel during the past 30 years, the scattering of thermal neutrons having a de Broglie wavelength comparable to the interatomic spacings of atoms in solids has become one of the most powerful techniques available in the elucidation of the structure and dynamics of condensed matter.Diffraction effects at wavelengths of the order of angstroms have been known since Max von Laue's demonstrations of X-ray diffraction by crystals in 1912. However, observing interference effects between well-separated, coherent beams is much more difficult to arrange. In 1965, Bonse and Hart invented the perfect silicon-crystal interferometer. They observed interference effects between two beams of X rays with a wavelength of about 1 A and separated by about 1 ~m .~

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Achievements in Neutron Interferometry

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References 52 publications

Subdynamics Through Time Scales and Scattering Maps in Quantum Field Theory

Subdynamics Through Time Scales and Scattering Maps in Quantum Field Theory

Trends in the Foundations of Physics

Neutron Interferometry Tests of Quantum Theorya

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