Neutron diffraction from holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystals

Author(s)

Irena Drevensek-Olenik, Mostafa Ellabban, Martin Fally, Klaus P. Pranzas, Jürgen Vollbrandt

Abstract

Photopolymerization-induced phase separation of the constituent components in holographic polymer-dispersed liquid

crystals (H-PDLCs) causes a huge variation of the refractive index for light as well as for neutrons. We demonstrated

that H-PDLCs with the thickness of only 30 micrometers act as extremely efficient gratings for neutrons. The lightinduced

refractive-index modulation for neutrons of about 10-6 was observed, which is nearly two orders of magnitude

larger than found in the best photo-neutron-refractive materials probed up to now. This makes H-PDLCs very promising

candidate for fabricating neutron-optical devices.

Organisation(s)

Physics of Functional Materials

External organisation(s)

University of Ljubljana, GKSS-Forschungszentrum

No. of pages

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1117/12.722821

Publication date

2007

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103021 Optics, 103034 Particle physics

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