Polarized neutron diffraction with ex-situ 3He neutron spin filter and two-dimensional detector for noncollinear incommensurate magnetic order
Abstract
Polarized neutron scattering has been widely used for studying magnetic orders in condensed matter. A typical setup for this technique is a triple-axis spectrometer with a ferromagnetic single-crystal monochromator and analyzer, which is suited for point-by-point measurements within the horizontal scattering plane. However, this setup cannot fully meet the demands of recent studies on complex magnetic orders with emergent cross-correlated phenomena. For instance, multiferroics, magnetic skyrmions, and other topologically nontrivial magnetic orders tend to have incommensurate magnetic modulation vectors running along various directions in reciprocal space, which cannot be captured by measurements restricted to the horizontal scattering plane. To overcome these limitations, we have developed an experimental setup combining a 3He neutron spin filter (3He-NSF) and a two-dimensional (2D) detector, which enables us to analyze the polarization of neutrons scattered away from the horizontal plane. We also establish a data reduction procedure to convert the 2D intensity maps into three-dimensional intensity distributions in reciprocal space, correcting for the effect of imperfect 3He polarization. This method is applied to single-crystal diffraction measurements on the multiferroic material Mn3WO6, which exhibits complex incommensurate magnetic orders. We have successfully observed polarization-dependent intensities of out-of-plane incommensurate magnetic reflections, demonstrating the effectiveness of the present method for analyzing complex magnetic structures.
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BibTeX
@misc{takahashi2026polarized,
title = {{Polarized neutron diffraction with ex-situ $^3$He neutron spin filter and two-dimensional detector for noncollinear incommensurate magnetic order}},
author = {Shingo Takahashi and Yuta Osawa and Ryuju Kobayashi and Takashi Ino and Hiraku Saito and Takuro Kawasaki and Takayuki Oku and Tatsuya Nakamura and Yoichi Ikeda and Masaki Fujita and Daisuke Koto and Yusuke Tokunaga and Taka-hisa Arima and Taro Nakajima},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.09345},
eprint = {2610.09345},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.09345},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Polarized neutron diffraction with ex-situ ^3He neutron spin filter and two-dimensional detector for noncollinear incommensurate magnetic order
AU - Shingo Takahashi
AU - Yuta Osawa
AU - Ryuju Kobayashi
AU - Takashi Ino
AU - Hiraku Saito
AU - Takuro Kawasaki
AU - Takayuki Oku
AU - Tatsuya Nakamura
AU - Yoichi Ikeda
AU - Masaki Fujita
AU - Daisuke Koto
AU - Yusuke Tokunaga
AU - Taka-hisa Arima
AU - Taro Nakajima
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.09345
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.09345
AB - Polarized neutron scattering has been widely used for studying magnetic orders in condensed matter. A typical setup for this technique is a triple-axis spectrometer with a ferromagnetic single-crystal monochromator and analyzer, which is suited for point-by-point measurements within the horizontal scattering plane. However, this setup cannot fully meet the demands of recent studies on complex magnetic orders with emergent cross-correlated phenomena. For instance, multiferroics, magnetic skyrmions, and other topologically nontrivial magnetic orders tend to have incommensurate magnetic modulation vectors running along various directions in reciprocal space, which cannot be captured by measurements restricted to the horizontal scattering plane. To overcome these limitations, we have developed an experimental setup combining a ^3He neutron spin filter (^3He-NSF) and a two-dimensional (2D) detector, which enables us to analyze the polarization of neutrons scattered away from the horizontal plane. We also establish a data reduction procedure to convert the 2D intensity maps into three-dimensional intensity distributions in reciprocal space, correcting for the effect of imperfect ^3He polarization. This method is applied to single-crystal diffraction measurements on the multiferroic material Mn_3WO_6, which exhibits complex incommensurate magnetic orders. We have successfully observed polarization-dependent intensities of out-of-plane incommensurate magnetic reflections, demonstrating the effectiveness of the present method for analyzing complex magnetic structures.
ER -