Speaker
Description
Neutron grating interferometers can be employed as powerful tools to perform high-precision measurements of deflection angles and scattering. A novel concept of a symmetric Talbot-Lau interferometer using three identical absorption gratings in a time-of-flight mode is under development at the University of Bern. The ultimate goal of this project is to conduct a sensitive measurement of the neutron electric charge and to improve the current best upper limit : Qn < (-0.4+/-1.1) * 10^-21 e [Baumann, 1988]. A proof-of-principle apparatus has been characterized at the cold neutron beamline PF1b at the Institute Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France. A description of the experiment, alignment procedures and first results concerning beam deflections measurements, the setup stability and the neutron electric charge will be presented
