Ultra High Precision Slits

This slit system was designed for a neutron reflectometer where the accuracy and resolution, as well as the parallelism of the slit blades, are crucial. In fact, the accuracy of the collimation provided by the slits can be directly correlated to the resolution of the experiment.

As for the other IB slits, each blade can be moved independently over the full aperture and are all fully overlapping.

The slit blade pair will remain parallel to each other and to the reference frame over the entire range of motion within 50 µrad (10’’), and the accuracy, resolution, and repeatability is < 1 µm over full range.

The slit blades for neutron reflectometers are typicall rectangular cut B4C blocks with a surface roughness Ra  ̴ 0.5 µm and a straightness < 2 µm over the full length.

The aperture size can be chosen to match the specific instrument.