A Differential Time-of-flight Spectrometer of Very Slow Neutrons

TL;DR

This paper introduces a time-of-flight spectrometer designed for very slow neutrons in the energy range of 0.05 to 2.5 microelectronvolts, with tests measuring neutron cross sections for various materials relevant to ultracold neutron physics.

Contribution

It presents a novel spectrometer specifically optimized for very slow neutrons and demonstrates its effectiveness through experimental measurements of neutron cross sections.

Findings

Measured total and differential neutron cross sections for multiple materials.

Validated the spectrometer's performance in ultracold neutron experiments.

Provided data essential for ultracold neutron research.

Abstract

A time-of-flight spectrometer of neutrons in the energy range (0.05 -- 2.5)$\mu$eV is described. This spectrometer has been tested my measuring the total and differential neutron cross sections for a number of materials: Al, Cu, $^{6}$LiF, Si, Zr, teflon, polyethylene and liquid fluoropolymers, that are essential for experiments in the physics of ultracold neutrons.