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Updated: Aug 20, 2025

Neutron Crystallography Data Collection and Processing for Modelling Hydrogen Atoms in Protein Structures
Published on: December 1, 2020
Experimental realization of neutron helical waves
Dusan Sarenac1, Melissa E Henderson1,2, Huseyin Ekinci1,2
1Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L3G1, Canada.
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.
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