NEUTRON DEPOLARIZATION AFTER A SPECULAR REFLECTION ON A NONMAGNETIC SURFACE

We present measurements obtained on the polarized neutron reflectomete r with polarization analysis PADA at the Orphee reactor. These results indicate that the specular reflection on a non-magnetic surface can i nduce a neutron beam depolarization or rotation. Different configurati ons were tested. We varied the magnetic field direction and the magnet ic field intensity and tested different substrates covered with layers of copper and gold of varying thickness. In all cases we obtained a s pin-flip signal after reflection, varying with the angle of incidence. We observed a similar phenomenon on Bragg peaks.