Experimental test of 3He neutron-spin filter in MIEZE spectrometer

Abstract

A modulated intensity by zero effort (MIEZE) spectrometer is a type of neutron-resonance spin-echo spectrometer and can be used to analyze the slow dynamics of condensed matter by measuring the intermediate scattering function I(Q,τ). A crucial feature of a MIEZE spectrometer is it leaves completely free the space between the sample and the detector because the sample is placed after the neutron-spin analyzer. Measuring the magnetic dynamics with a conventional neutron-spin-echo spectrometer is difficult, but with a MIEZE spectrometer such a measurement may be done simply by introducing a second analyzer after the sample. Measuring the magnetic dynamics with high precision requires the background to be reduced to a minimum and is a job for which a 3He neutron-spin filter (3He-NSF) is a promising candidate as a second analyzer. However, one difficulty with this approach is the diffusion of 3He gas from the 3He-NSF, which may be measured and interpreted as dynamics. Therefore, we investigate herein whether the dynamics of gas diffusion is detected when using a 3He-NSF as second analyzer in a MIEZE spectrometer. Toward this end, we experimented with the MIEZE spectrometer installed at beamline 06 (BL06) at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility at Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC MLF). The results confirm that the gas-diffusion dynamics of the 3He-NSF are not detected, and that the 3He-NSF, therefore, can be used as a second analyzer in this MIEZE spectrometer.