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Chapter 6: The start of research activities and the arrival of the British
When the instruments were ready experiments were immediately started. On IN2 Steiner and Dorner measured spin waves in a one- dimensional ferromagnet CsNiF3 which was then published in 197391. The first small angle scattering tests were performed by Konrad Ibel and Henrich Stuhrmann on myoglobin92, and Renouprez measured SiO2.
6.2 Further developments in neutron optics
Developments in neutron optics did not cease with the departure of Maier-Leibnitz. On the contrary it was expanded by the arrival of a new activity, the development of supermirrors. These were invented by Ferenc Mezei93. The starting point was work done
at Brookhaven by Benno Schoenborn et al94. They demonstrated that by evaporating alternating sequence of layers of different metals on a flat support they could create a one-dimensional crystal which could serve as a monochromator. The principle
of a supermiror is to produce a sequence of broad Bragg peaks just beyond the critical angle of reflection. This is achieved by progressively varying the thickness of an alternating sequence of deposited layers. Then one obtains a mirror which acts like a slightly less efficient conventional mirror (70%), but which will
91 M. Steiner and B. Dorner, Solid State Communications, (1973), 12, p537-540, DOI 10.1016/0038-1098(73)90652- 2
92 K.Ibel and H.B.Stuhrmann (1975) JMB B, 255-265, DOI 10.1016/0022-2836(75)90131-X
93 F. Mezei, Communications on physics (London), (1976), 1, p81-85. F. Mezei and P.A. Dagleish, Communica-
tions on physics (London), (1976), 2, p41-43. Papers available here.
94 B.P. Schoenborn, D.L. Caspar and O.F. Kammerer, J. Appl. Cryst., (1974), 7, p508-510, DOI 10.1107/ S0021889874010302
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