Holographic hyperbranched polymer nanocomposite grating with exceptionally large neutron scattering length density modulation amplitudes
Abstract
Nanoparticle-polymer composite gratings incorporating ultrahigh-refractive-index hyperbranched polymers as organic nanoparticles have demonstrated exceptional light optical properties, yet their potential for neutron diffraction applications remains unexplored. We report on the neutron optical properties of a holographically structured hyperbranched-polymer-dispersed nanocomposite grating at a quasi-monochromatic neutron wavelength of 2 nm. We show that neutron diffraction measurements performed at the SANS-I instrument of the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland) reveal exceptionally high neutron scattering length density modulation amplitudes. These scattering length density modulation amplitudes are the highest reported to date. Very high neutron diffraction efficiency is expected with the use of thicker uniform gratings and longer neutron wavelengths, with low angular and wavelength selectivity constraints.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.00922,
title = {Holographic hyperbranched polymer nanocomposite grating with exceptionally large neutron scattering length density modulation amplitudes},
author = {Elhoucine Hadden and Jürgen Klepp and Martin Fally and Tobias Jenke and Joachim Kohlbrecher and Tomoko Shimada and Asako Narita and Juro Oshima and Yasuo Tomita},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.00922},
year = {2025}
}