Diffraction Gratings for Neutrons from Polymers and Holographic Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystals

TL;DR

This paper investigates the use of holographically recorded gratings in polymers and liquid crystals as neutron optical elements, analyzing their diffraction efficiencies and optimizing their design for neutron applications.

Contribution

It provides experimental data and analysis on neutron diffraction in holographic polymer gratings, proposing guidelines for creating high-efficiency neutron diffraction devices.

Findings

Diffraction efficiencies depend on grating parameters and are analyzed using coupled wave theory.

Optimal grating parameters can be identified for high neutron diffraction efficiency.

Experimental results support the feasibility of holographic polymer gratings for neutron optics.

Abstract

We discuss the applicability of holographically recorded gratings in photopolymers and holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystals as neutron optical elements. An experimental investigation of their properties for light and neutrons with different grating spacings and grating thicknesses is performed. The angular dependencies of the diffraction efficiencies for those gratings are interpreted in terms of a rigourous coupled wave analysis. Starting from the obtained results we work out the lines for the production of an optimised neutron optical diffraction grating, i.e., high diffraction efficiency in the Bragg diffraction regime with moderate angular selectivity.