Eliminating line of sight in elliptic guides using gravitational curving

Eliminating fast neutrons by removing direct line of sight between the source and the target sample is a well established technique. This can be done with little loss of transmission for a straight neutron guide by horizontal curving. With an elliptic guide shape, however, curving the guide would result in a breakdown of the geometrical focusing mechanism inherent to the elliptical shape, resulting in unwanted reflections and loss of transmission.

We present a new and yet untried idea by curving a guide in such a way as to follow the ballistic curve of a neutron in the gravitational field, while still retaining the elliptic shape seen from the accelerated reference frame of the neutron. Analytical calculations and ray-tracing simulations show that this method is useful for cold neutrons at guide lengths in excess of 100 m.

We will present some of the latest results for guide optimization relevant for instrument design at the ESS, in particular an off-backscattering spectrometer which utilizes the gravitational curving, for 6.66 Å neutrons over a guide length of 300 m.