Observation of polarized neutron interference in spin space

• Published in: Europhysics letters 2000-07, Vol.51 (1), p.13-19
• Main Authors: Mulder, F. M, Grigoriev, S. V, Kraan, W. H, Rekveldt, M. Th
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 03.75.Dg; 42.25.Ja; 76.90.+d
• ISSN: 0295-5075; 1286-4854
• DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2000-00332-7

The coherent superposition of particle quantum states resulting from different spatial paths shows well-known interference effects. Another type of interference is Larmor precession, which can be described as neutron wave interference in spin space, i.e. interference on the same spatial path. Here we show several new manifestations of interference phenomena of the latter type. The interference is produced by coherent population of different $I_z=\pm\frac{1}{2}$ spin states in a polarized neutron beam between two resonant radio-frequency (RF) spin flippers. Their spin flip probability, and thus the occupation numbers of the spin states, can be tuned between 0 and 1 by changing the RF amplitude. This leads to interference effects in the polarization since the energy exchanged between the RF field and spin yields different phase evolution in the spatial parts of the neutron states. Depending on the preparation of the initial neutron states, five values for the time-independent phase difference between the final neutron states can be observed.