Neutron planar waveguides are focusing devices generating a narrow neutron beam of submicron width. Such a neutron microbeam can be used for the investigation of local microstructures with high spatial resolution. The essential parameter of the microbeam is its angular width. The main contribution to the microbeam angular divergence is Fraunhofer diffraction on a narrow slit. We review and discuss various ways to characterize the angular divergence of the neutron microbeam using time-of-flight and fixed wavelength reflectometers.
Results of experimental investigations of a neutron resonances width in planar waveguides using the time-of-flight reflectometer REMUR of the IBR-2 pulsed reactor are reported and comparison with theoretical calculations is presented. The intensity of the neutron microbeam emitted from the waveguide edge was registered as a function of the neutron wavelength and the incident beam angular divergence. The possible applications of this method for the investigations of layered nanostructures are discussed.
Resonant coupling of coplanar waveguides is explored by wrapping proximate shorted ends of the waveguides with micron size ferromagnetic Co90Ta5Zr5 tubes. Ferromagnetic resonance and up to 7 outer surface modes are identified. Experimental results for these contorted rectangular tubes are in good agreement with micromagnetic simulations and model calculations of magnetostatic modes for an elliptical ferromagnetic tube. These results indicate that the modes are largely determined by tube topology and dimensions but less so by the detailed shape.
We report inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the phonon spectra in a pure powder sample of the multiferroic material BiFeO3. A high-temperature range was covered to unravel the changes in the phonon dynamics across the Neel (T_N ~ 650 K) and Curie (T_C ~ 1100 K) temperatures. Experimental results are accompanied by ab-initio lattice dynamical simulations of phonon density of states to enable microscopic interpretations of the observed data. The calculations reproduce well the observed vibrational features and provide the partial atomic vibrational components. Our results reveal clearly the signature of three different phase transitions both in the diffraction patterns and phonon spectra. The phonon modes are found to be most affected by the transition at the T_C. The spectroscopic evidence for the existence of a different structural modification just below the decomposition limit (T_D ~ 1240 K) is unambiguous indicating strong structural changes that may be related to oxygen vacancies and concomitant Fe3+ to Fe2+ reduction and spin transition.
We show how to convert divergent series, which typically occur in many applications in physics, into rapidly convergent inverse factorial series. This can be interpreted physically as a novel resummation of perturbative series. Being convergent, these new series allow rigorous extrapolation from an asymptotic region with a large parameter, to the opposite region where the parameter is small. We illustrate the method with various physical examples, and discuss how these convergent series relate to standard methods such as Borel summation, and also how they incorporate the physical Stokes phenomenon. We comment on the relation of these results to Dysons physical argument for the divergence of perturbation theory. This approach also leads naturally to a wide class of relations between bosonic and fermionic partition functions, and Klein-Gordon and Dirac determinants.
Peculiarities of the formation of a neutron enhanced standing wave in the structure with a thin highly absorbing layer of gadolinium are considered in the article. An analogue of the poisoning effect well known in reactor physics was found. The effect is stronger for the Nb/Gd/Nb system. Despite of this effect, for a Nb/Gd bilayer and a Nb/Gd/Nb trilayer placed between Al2O3 substrate and Cu layer, it is shown theoretically and experimentally that one order of magnitude enhancement of neutron density is possible in the vicinity of the Gd layer. This enhancement makes it possible to study domain formation in the Gd layer under transition of the Nb layer(s) into the superconducting state (cryptoferromagnetic phase).