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The effect of neutron spin rotation at Laue diffraction in a weakly deformed neutron-transparent noncentrosymmetric crystal has been described theoretically and studied experimentally. The effect is due to the bending of a Kato trajectory of the neutron in the deformed crystal. At a certain type of deformation, one of two neutron waves excited at Laue diffraction, which propagate in opposite crystal fields in the crystal with no center of symmetry, leaves the crystal. As a result, the spin of the remaining neutron wave is rotated by a certain angle with respect to initial direction due to the interaction of the magnetic moment of a moving neutron with the crystalline electric field. This effect is absent in an undeformed perfect crystal, where only the depolarization of a beam occurs because both waves in opposite electric fields have the same amplitude. A method has been developed for controlled deforming the perfect single crystal by creating a temperature gradient in it. Thereby, a new possibility of measuring electric fields acting on a neutron in noncentrosymmetric crystals, as well as a method of controlling these fields in experiments on studying the fundamental properties of the neutron, has been implemented.

A new mechanism of neutron acceleration in the accelerated perfect crystal is proposed and studied experimentally. The effect arises due to the resonance energy dependence of the neutron refraction index in vicinity of the Bragg's energy. During the neutron time-of-flight through the accelerated crystal the relative neutron-crystal velocity will be changing (with the deviation from the exact Bragg condition) and so the refraction index and the velocity of outgoing neutron will change as well.

The effect of neutron spin rotation at Laue diffraction in a noncentrosymmetric weakly deformed neutron-transparent crystal has been studied experimentally. The effect appears because of two phenomena: (i) the interaction of the magnetic moment of a moving neutron with the crystalline electric field and (ii) bending of trajectories of the neutron in a deformed crystal; as a result, the amplitudes of two waves excited at Laue diffraction, which propagate in the crystal in opposite electric fields, at the output of the crystal are not equal.

Investigations of the spatial resolution of a setup for verification of the equivalence of inertial and gravitational masses of a neutron by the method of diffraction in a perfect crystal have been performed. Tests were conducted at Bragg angles of 74°–82°. A decrease in spatial resolution at Bragg angles >78° is detected.

A new mechanism of neutron acceleration is studied experimentally in detail for cold neutrons passing through the accelerated perfect crystal with the energies close to the Bragg one. The effect arises due to the following reason. The crystal refraction index (neutron–crystal interaction potential) for neutron in the vicinity of the Bragg resonance sharply depends on the parameter of deviation from the exact Bragg condition, i.e. on the crystal–neutron relative velocity. Therefore the neutrons enter into the accelerated crystal with one neutron–crystal interaction potential and exit with the other. Neutron kinetic energy cannot vary inside the crystal due to its homogeneity. So, after passage through such a crystal, neutrons will be accelerated or decelerated because of the different energy change at the entrance and exit crystal boundaries.

Review of the new crystal-diffraction methods to study fundamental neutron properties and interactions is presented. Features of neutron optics in the crystal without a center of symmetry is discussed as well as the first experimental results and perspectives to improve the sensitivity of experiments on a search for the neutron electric dipole moment (EDM) and CP-violating short-range pseudomagnetic nucleon-nucleon interaction. Also, the possibility to develop ultra-precise neutron spectroscopy using Laue diffraction in the perfect crystal is discussed, which can be used for a broad range of experiments: search for the neutron electric charge; test of the equivalence principle; precise measurements of neutron scattering amplitudes; crystal quality testing.

The effect of two-crystal focusing of neutrons at Laue diffraction from large perfect silicon crystals has been studied. It has been shown that the focusing effect makes it possible to reach an angular resolution better than 0.03″, which is about 0.01 of the width of a Bragg reflection. This circumstance allows a new ultraprecision neutron-spectrometry method based on the method of spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering in combination with Laue diffraction.

We measured the spatial splitting of a non-polarized neutron beam passed through a crystal under diffraction conditions in heterogeneous magnetic field (analog to the Stern-Gerlach effect) into two polarized components with opposite polarization. The measurements were carried out using Laue diffraction scheme, small gradients of the magnetic field and Bragg angles close to orthogonality θB=(78−82)∘. After a flight path in crystal of 21.6 cm a splitting of 4.1±0.1 cm was achieved (using a field gradient of ∼3 G/cm and a diffraction angle of 82∘). In the absence of a diffraction (crystal) but otherwise the same flight path and field gradient the spatial splitting would be ∼4⋅10−7 cm. From those we deduce an experimental amplification factor in the order of about ∼2⋅105tan2⁡θB due to the use of diffraction in crystals, which agrees with theory.

We describe the structure design and present the results of experimental testing of a birefringent magnetic neutron prisms for spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering (SESANS). The SESANS setup, equipped with perfect single crystals for measuring diffraction-enhanced spin interference effects, must possess unprecedented sensitivity with respect to small external actions on a neutron and is intended for use in experiments for checking the neutron electroneutrality.

A direct experimental observation of the anomalous absorption of neutrons undergoing Laue diffraction in a highly perfect silicon single crystal of size about 200 mm at Bragg angles close to π/2 is reported. It is shown that, in the case of diffraction at the (220) plane, the neutron absorption length may be several meters, which is nearly one order of magnitude longer than the mean absorption length for neutrons of the same wavelength. This circumstance makes it possible to study effects accompanying Laue diffraction at Bragg angles of up to 88° and a crystal size of about 200 mm.

The effect of the neutron spin rotation at Laue diffraction in a weakly deformed noncentrosymmetric and transparent for the neutrons crystal has been theoretically described and experimentally investigated. This effect arises in the deformed crystal because of the curvature of the neutron trajectory in the crystal. A certain type of deformation leads to the escape outside the crystal of one of the two neutron waves excited at Laue diffraction. This two waves propagate in the crystal without a center of symmetry in electric fields with the opposite sign. In this case the spin of the remaining neutron wave will be rotating relative to the original direction due to the interaction of the magnetic moment of the moving neutron with the crystal's intracrystalline electric field. In a perfect undeformed crystal such spin rotation effect is absent. There is only a depolarization of the beam since both waves in opposite electric fields are present with the same amplitudes. A technique for controlled deformation of a perfect single crystal by creating a temperature gradient has been developed. Thus a new possibility to measure the electric fields which act on the neutron in noncentrosymmetric crystals has been realized. There also appeared a way to control these fields in experiments on the study of the neutron fundamental properties.

An essential magnification of an external force acting on a diffracting neutron for the Bragg angles θB close to the right one is observed. Any external action (caused by either crystal deformation or external force affected the neutron) results in a bend of the so called “Kato trajectories” inside the crystal and, for the case of a finite crystal, gives considerable variation of the intensities of both diffracted neutron beams (direct and reflected). It is shown that the magnification factor is proportional to tan2 (θb) and can reach (102−103) for Bragg angles surfficiently close to 90°.

The feasibility of an experiment to search for the neutron electric dipole moment (EDM) by Laue diffraction in crystals without a center of symmetry was tested. At the PF1A beam of the ILL reactor a record time delay of τ ≈2 ms for the passage of neutrons through a quartz crystal was reached for the (1 1 0) plane and diffraction angles equal to 88.5°. That corresponds to an effective neutron velocity in the crystal of 20 m/s, while the velocity of the incident neutron was 800 m/s. It was shown experimentally that the value τN 1/2 , determining the method's sensitivity, has a maximum for the Bragg angle equal to 86°. The results allow us to estimate the statistical sensitivity of the method for the neutron EDM. For the PF1B beam of the ILL reactor the sensitivity can reach ∼6×10 −25 e cm per day for the available quartz crystal.

First observation of new effects was carried out using the set-up created for searching for a neutron electric dipole moment (EDM) by a crystal-diffraction method. For the first time the neutron dynamical Laue diffraction for the Bragg angles close to a right angle (up to 87°) was studied, using the direct diffraction beam and a thick (∼3.5-cm) crystal. The effect of an essential time delay of diffracting neutrons inside the crystal for Bragg angles close to 90° was experimentally observed, using a time-of-flight method. The phenomenon of neutron-beam depolarization was first experimentally observed for the case of Laue diffraction in a noncentrosymmetric α-quartz crystal. It is experimentally proved that the interplanar electric field, affecting a neutron in a crystal, maintains its value up to Bragg angles equal to 87°. These results confirm the opportunity to increase by more than an order of magnitude the sensitivity of the method to the neutron EDM, using the diffraction angles close to 90°, and give a real prospect to exceed the sensitivity of the magnetic resonance method, using ultra-cold neutrons.

A simple method for the relative measurement of the interplanar distances of high perfect crystals with a high precision is described. It is based on the comparison of the interplanar distances of two crystals using neutron transmission through one crystal and back reflection by the reference second crystal at Bragg angles close to 90 ∘ . The method allows us to measure the variation of the crystal interplanar distance Δ d relatively to the reference with the accuracy Δ d / d better than 10 - 7 .

An optical effect of a neutron spin rotation in the noncentrosymmetric quartz crystal was investigated. The effect was caused by the Schwinger interaction of the moving neutron with the strong electric field affects the neutron in noncentrosymmetric crystal. Value and sign of the effect depend on a deviation of the neutron energy from the Bragg one. We proposed to use the second crystal placed in parallel position to the main one to select the neutron with the given deviation parameter. It was shown that we could control and tune the value and sign of the electric field acting on the registered neutron by heating (or cooling) of the second crystal. The value of this field can reach ∼ 1 × 10 8 V/cm that gives us the real perspectives to improve essentially the present sensitivity to measure the neutron electric dipole moment (EDM) by the crystal diffraction technique.

The energy dependence of neutron refraction index in a perfect crystal for neutron energy, close to the Bragg ones, was studied. The resonance shape of this dependence with approximately the Darwin width was found. As a result, the value of deviation from the exact Bragg condition can change during the neutron time of flight through the accelerated crystal and so the refraction index and the velocity of outgoing neutron can change as well. Such new mechanism of neutron acceleration in the accelerating perfect crystal was proposed and found experimentally. This mechanism is march more effective then known one concerning with the neutron acceleration in the accelerating usual media.

Experiment for the search for the neutron electric dipole moment using Laue diffraction in a noncentrosymmetric crystal is proposed. The method is based on the effect of depolarization of the diffracted neutron beam due to interaction with an interplanar electric field of a noncentrosymmetric crystal. The value of this field can exceed ∼10 8 V/cm . An essential feature of the proposed Laue diffraction method is the possibility to increase more than by the order of value the time τ of neutron passage through the crystal and, accordingly, the time of interaction with the electric field using the Bragg angles close to π/2. The sensitivity of the method can be ∼10 −25 e cm / day for a really existing quartz crystal.

In the present work we report the analysis of spin effects for neutrons diffracted by a noncentrosymmetric crystal in a Laue diffraction scheme. New method of a search for neutron electric dipole moment is proposed. It is based on the predicted new effect of depolarization of the diffracted neutron beams (direct and reflected) due to neutron interaction with the strong interplanar electric field (up to 10 9 V/cm).