Coherence Optimization in Neutron Interferometry through Defocussing

Abstract: A zero-area four-blade perfect crystal neutron interferometer (NI) possess a decoherence-free subspace (DFS) for low-frequency mechanical vibrations and thus is easier to site. %has the potential to broaden the application of crystal-based neutron interferometry to a higher number of neutron sources. However, unlike the standard three-blade Mach-Zehnder NI the ideal contrast of this four-blade NI geometry is less than one. By applying a recently introduced quantum information model for dynamical diffraction we show that the contrast for the four-blade DFS NI can be increased by offsetting the focusing condition. The contrast optimization leads to an NI geometry where the distances between the centers of the blades are equidistant. An experiment is proposed to verify the increase in contrast.