https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2010-10926-x
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Diffuse reflection of ultracold neutrons from low-roughness surfaces
1
Paul Scherrer Institut, PSI, Villigen, Switzerland
2
University Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
3
Stefan Meyer Institut, Vienna, Austria
4
Institut Laue Langevin, ILL, Grenoble, France
5
Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland
* e-mail: reinhold.henneck@psi.ch
Received:
2
October
2009
Revised:
18
December
2009
Accepted:
21
January
2010
Published online:
10
March
2010
We report a measurement of the reflection of ultracold neutrons from flat, large-area plates of different Fermi potential materials with low surface roughness. The results were used to test two diffuse reflection models, the well-known Lambert model and the micro-roughness model which is based on wave scattering. The Lambert model fails to reproduce the diffuse reflection data. The surface roughness b and correlation length w , obtained by fitting the micro-roughness model to the data are in the range 1
b
3 nm and 10
w
120 nm, in qualitative agreement with independent measurements using atomic force microscopy.
© SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2010
