Application of a Portable $^3$He-Based Polarization Insert at a Time-of-Flight Neutron Reflectometer

Abstract

The suitability of a transportable 3He-spin filter as temporary broadband polarizer for a Time-of-Flight neutron reflectometer is demonstrated. A simple two-wavelength method for characterisation of a 3He-spin filter is proposed, which can be applied even if the absolute transmittance of the 3He-spin filter cannot be accurately determined. We demonstrate the data treatment procedure for extracting the spin-up and spin-down neutron reflectivity from measurements obtained with a time dependent 3He polarization. The extraction of a very weak magnetic signal from reflectivity data, measured on the in-situ grown magnetic heterostructure Fe1 nm/Cu20 nm/Sisubstrate in an externally applied magnetic field of 30mT is presented and compared to similar measurements on the growth stage Cu20 nm/Sisubstrate of the very same sample, which does not yet contain any magnetic material.