The Neutron Silicon Lens : An update of the thermal neutron lens results

This paper introduces the concept of the Neutron Silicon Lens (NSL) and provides and update on the experimental results achieved to date. The NSL design is a cylindrical neutron lens based on the use of multiple neutron mirrors supported and separated by silicon wafers. Such lenses would have many applications in both the primary and scattered beams on neutron instruments, and would lead to immediate improvements where the sample to be illuminated is small, as in high pressure or engineering strain scanning instruments.