Development of high transmission guides for polarized ultracold neutrons

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K17650
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Particle/Nuclear/Cosmic ray/Astro physics
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: PIERRE EDGARD 大阪大学, 核物理研究センター, 特任助教(常勤) (30748893)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HATANAKA Kichiji 大阪大学, 核物理研究センター, 教授 (50144530) ; KAWASAKI Shinsuke 大学共同利用機関法人高エネルギー加速器研究機構, 素粒子原子核研究所, 助教 (20712235) ; KIKAWA Tatsuya 京都大学, 大学院理学研究科 物理学第二教室高エネルギー物理学研究室, 助教 (60823408) ; MATSUMIYA Ryohei TRIUMF, post-doctoral fellow (70727205)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: Ultracold neutron / Fermi potential / Reflectivity / Nickel Phosphorus alloy

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research program aimed to create new guides for the transport of polarized ultracold neutrons (UCN) from a new superthermal UCN source to an experimental setup built to measure the electric dipole moment of the neutron. The first part of the research was focused on the characterization of new materials for these guides (understanding how resistant they are using thermal stress test, how they can reflect neutrons). Tests were performed at MLF, J-PARC using cold neutron reflectometry and confirmed the possible use of Nickel-Phosphorus alloys as UCN guides coatings. The second part of the research was focused on the building of the new guides and test of different substrates and roughnesses. The produced guides were tested with ultracold neutrons at the Paul Scherer Institut (Switzerland). We were able to achieve a transmission of 97% for one of the guides, which is suitable for our purpose.

Free Research Field

Nuclear and particles Physics