Development of neutron supermirror with large-scale ion-beam sputtering instrument

✍ Scribed by R. Maruyama; D. Yamazaki; T. Ebisawa; M. Hino; K. Soyama

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 147 KB
• Volume: 385-386
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-4526
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physb.2006.06.024

✦ Synopsis

Neutron supermirrors have become important devices for transporting, bending and focusing a neutron beam. We have developed neutron supermirrors by using an ion beam sputtering (IBS) instrument since it enables the production of layers with high quality and density and small grain size. An ion polishing technique that suppresses the interface roughness of multilayers has also been investigated.

We have installed a new IBS instrument with a large effective deposition area whose diameter is 500 mm in order to produce neutron guides, benders and other optical devices by using supermirrors with large effective critical momentum transfer. Ni/Ti multilayer monochromators and Ni/Ti supermirrors with m ¼ 3 have been fabricated using the IBS instrument and their performances have been measured. The uniformity of the coating of the supermirror for the entire deposition area has also been confirmed.