Impurity nano-particle gels in liquid helium

D22 is a small angle neutron scattering instrument particularly suited for real-time experiments and weakly scattering samples. It benefits from both high neutron flux and a sample zone easily adaptable to a wide range of configurations.

The video below shows the first neutron study of impurity nano-particle gels in superfluid helium. These gels discovered in 1999 [1] are assumed to be good candidates for future nano-particle based ultra-cold neutron (UCN) sources [2]. The experiment 3-15-48 was performed on D22 from 06/11/2006 to 08/11/2006. The impurities introduced into the liquid helium-4 were deuterium in the first experiment and then heavy water molecules.

Ref.:
  - Mezhov-Deglin and A. M. Kokotin (1999) Low Temperature Physics, 29, 515-518.
  - V. V. Nesvizhevsky and L. P. Mezhov-Deglin, "Thermalization of neutrons in gels of ultracold particles" in Book of Abstracts, Third Chernogolovka Workshop on Low Temperature Physics in Microgravity Environment CWS-2002, Chernogolovka, Russia (2002), p. 40.