Methods for preparation and detection of neutron spin-orbit states

TL;DR

This paper introduces methods for preparing and detecting neutron spin-orbit states, enabling advanced material probing through neutron orbital angular momentum and spin correlations.

Contribution

It presents novel techniques for generating and characterizing neutron spin-orbit states, including a direct detection method overcoming neutron-specific challenges.

Findings

Effective preparation of neutron spin-orbit states using magnetic field geometries

A detection method measuring spin and momentum correlations directly

Potential extension of techniques to electrons and electromagnetic waves

Abstract

The generation and control of neutron orbital angular momentum (OAM) states and spin correlated OAM (spin-orbit) states provides a powerful probe of materials with unique penetrating abilities and magnetic sensitivity. We describe techniques to prepare and characterize neutron spin-orbit states, and provide a quantitative comparison to known procedures. The proposed detection method directly measures the correlations of spin state and transverse momentum, and overcomes the major challenges associated with neutrons, which are low flux and small spatial coherence length. Our preparation techniques, utilizing special geometries of magnetic fields, are based on coherent averaging and spatial control methods borrowed from nuclear magnetic resonance. The described procedures may be extended to other probes such as electrons and electromagnetic waves.