Experimental realization of neutron helical waves.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36399573.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.add2002 and PMC identifier 9674294.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Methods of preparation and analysis of structured waves of light, electrons, and atoms have been advancing rapidly. Despite the proven power of neutrons for material characterization and studies of fundamental physics, neutron science has not been able to fully integrate these techniques because of small transverse coherence lengths, the relatively poor resolution of spatial detectors, and low fluence rates. Here, we demonstrate methods that are practical with the existing technologies and show the experimental achievement of neutron helical wavefronts that carry well-defined orbital angular momentum values. We discuss possible applications and extensions to spin-orbit correlations and material characterization techniques.