Demonstration of achromatic cold-neutron microscope utilizing axisymmetric focusing mirrors

An achromatic cold-neutron microscope with magnification 4 is demonstrated. The image-forming optics is composed of nested coaxial mirrors of full figures of revolution, so-called Wolter optics. The spatial resolution, field of view, and depth of focus are measured and found consistent with ray-trac...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Liu, Dazhi, Hussey, D., Gubarev, M. V., Ramsey, B. D., Jacobson, D., Arif, M., Moncton, David E., Khaykovich, Boris
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Physical Society 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79044
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9490-2771
Description
Summary:An achromatic cold-neutron microscope with magnification 4 is demonstrated. The image-forming optics is composed of nested coaxial mirrors of full figures of revolution, so-called Wolter optics. The spatial resolution, field of view, and depth of focus are measured and found consistent with ray-tracing simulations. Methods of increasing the resolution and magnification are discussed, as well as the scientific case for the neutron microscope. In contrast to traditional pinhole-camera neutron imaging, the resolution of the microscope is determined by the mirrors rather than by the collimation of the beam, leading to possible dramatic improvements in the signal rate and resolution.