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Imaging and focusing of neutrons by a zone plate

Abstract

The use of refractive lenses for long-wavelength neutrons,although possible1, is severely limited by the fact that the refractive index differs only very slightly from unity (forexample, n − 1 = 2.3 × 10−4for quartz at λ = 20 Å). However, the fact thatonly a relatively thin layer of material is needed to produce an optical path difference of half a wavelength (for example, 2.4 µm of Cu at λ = 20 Å) led us to propose2 previously that neutrons could be focused by diffraction froma phase grating of variable spacing; this is , in fact, a type of zone plate. Zone plates, first described by Soret3, have been used satisfactorily over a large part of the electromagneticspectrum4–6. We now report the successful focusing and imaging of a slow neutron beam by means of a Fresnel zone plate8.

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References

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  2. Klein, A. G. & Opat, G. I. in Neutron Interferometry (eds Bonse, U. & Rauch, H.) (Oxford University Press, 1980).

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Kearney, P., Klein, A., Opat, G. et al. Imaging and focusing of neutrons by a zone plate. Nature 287, 313–314 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/287313a0

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