Three-port beam splitter for slow neutrons using holographic nanoparticle-polymer composite diffraction gratings

Diffraction of slow neutrons by nanoparticle-polymer composite gratings has been observed. By carefully choosing grating parameters such as grating thickness and spacing, a three-port beam splitter operation for slow neutrons-splitting the incident neutron intensity equally into the +/- 1st and the 0th diffraction orders-has been realized. As a possible application, a Zernike three-path interferometer is briefly discussed. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4758686]