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Updated: Jan 19, 2026

Study of Protein Dynamics via Neutron Spin Echo Spectroscopy
Published on: April 13, 2022
Generation and detection of spin-orbit coupled neutron beams
Dusan Sarenac1, Connor Kapahi2,3, Wangchun Chen4,5
1Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada; dsarenac@uwaterloo.ca.
Abstract:
Spin-orbit coupling of light has come to the fore in nanooptics and plasmonics, and is a key ingredient of topological photonics and chiral quantum optics. We demonstrate a basic tool for incorporating analogous effects into neutron optics: the generation and detection of neutron beams with coupled spin and orbital angular momentum. The 3He neutron spin filters are used in conjunction with specifically oriented triangular coils to prepare neutron beams with lattices of spin-orbit correlations, as demonstrated by their spin-dependent intensity profiles. These correlations can be tailored to particular applications, such as neutron studies of topological materials.
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