https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201921906003
Neutron spin rotation effect at Laue diffraction in a weakly deformed and nonabsorbing crystal with no center of symmetry
1 Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, National Research Center Kurchatov Institute, Gatchina 188300, Russia
2 Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg 195251, Russia
3 St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg 199034, Russia
a e-mail: voronin_vv@pnpi.nrcki.ru
Published online: 12 December 2019
The effect of the neutron spin rotation at Laue diffraction in a weakly deformed noncentrosymmetric and transparent for the neutrons crystal has been theoretically described and experimentally investigated. This effect arises in the deformed crystal because of the curvature of the neutron trajectory in the crystal. A certain type of deformation leads to the escape outside the crystal of one of the two neutron waves excited at Laue diffraction. This two waves propagate in the crystal without a center of symmetry in electric fields with the opposite sign. In this case the spin of the remaining neutron wave will be rotating relative to the original direction due to the interaction of the magnetic moment of the moving neutron with the crystal's intracrystalline electric field. In a perfect undeformed crystal such spin rotation effect is absent. There is only a depolarization of the beam since both waves in opposite electric fields are present with the same amplitudes. A technique for controlled deformation of a perfect single crystal by creating a temperature gradient has been developed. Thus a new possibility to measure the electric fields which act on the neutron in noncentrosymmetric crystals has been realized. There also appeared a way to control these fields in experiments on the study of the neutron fundamental properties.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2019
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
