Measurement of neutron scattering lengths using neutron interferometry.

摘要

This thesis describes the details on building a new Neutron Interferometry and Optics Facility (NIOFa), the measurement of the incoherent neutron scattering length bi of 3He, and the measurement of the coherent neutron scattering length bc of 4He at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research (NCNR).;A new monochromatic beamline and facility has been installed at the NCNR devoted to neutron interferometry in the research areas of spin control, spin manipulation, quantum mechanics, quantum information science, spintronics, and material science. This facility is possible in part because of advances in decoherence free subspace interferometer designs that have demonstrated consistent contrast in the presence of vibrational noise; a major environmental constraint that has prevented neutron interferometry from being applied at other neutron facilities. This new facility, NIOFa, is located in the guide hall of the NCNR upstream of the existing Neutron Interferometry and Optics Facility (NIOF) and has several advantages over the NIOF including higher incident flux, better neutron polarization, and increased accessibility.;The measurement of the incoherent neutron scattering length bi of 3He was done using a (220) single silicon crystal skew symmetric interferometer. This experiment requires both a polarized beam and a polarized target. We report bi = -2.35 +/- 0.014 (stat.) +/- 0.014 (syst.). This experiment is a revision of the previous experiment which was done in 2008, and partially explains the non-zero phase shift seen in 2008 experiment even if target cell was completely unpolarized.;The measurement of the coherent neutron scattering length b c of the 4He was done using a (111) single silicon crystal interferometer. The neutron interferometry and optics facility at NIST had been used previously to determine the coherent scattering lengths for n- 1H, n-2H, and n-3He to less than 1% relative uncertainty. We report bc of the 4He ranges from (2.9968 +/- 0.0034 fm) to (3.1339 +/- 0.0022fm).