Production and neutron reflectivity of replica supermirror

Placing a neutron guide tube very near the cold neutron source in a reactor cope of an accelerator target system allows one to extract more very low e nergy neutrons. However, this requires that the guide tube should be extrem ely radiation resistant. Therefore, we developed a metal-based neutron supe rmirror to be used in high radiation environments. A conventional (Ni-Ti) s upermirror is deposited onto a float glass substrate and Cu is electroplate d on top of the mirror. The glass is then removed, leaving the replica supe rmirror on the copper. We describe the fabrication process and demonstrate that the mirror has good reflectivity, essentially that of a glass-based su permirror. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.