Phase vortex lattices in neutron interferometry

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Neutron Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) is an additional quantum mechanical degree of freedom, useful in quantum information, and may provide more complete information on the neutron scattering amplitude of nuclei. Various methods for producing OAM in neutrons have been discussed. In this work we generalize magnetic methods which employ coherent averaging and apply this to neutron interferometry. Two aluminium prisms are inserted into a nested loop interferometer to generate a phase vortex lattice with significant extrinsic OAM, 〈Lz〉≈0.35, on a length scale of≈220μm, transverse to the propagation direction. N. Geerits et al. Commun. Phys. 6, 209 (2023), opens an external URL in a new window (10. Aug 2023)