OAM-enhanced Small-Angle Neutron Scattering for characterizing chiral magnetic and topological materials

Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) is widely used to study nanoscale structures in materials, providing critical insights into their size, shape and internal features. Spin-polarized SANS extends this capability to magnetic systems, enabling detailed investigations of complex spin textures. Here, I will describe a new advancement for incorporating neutron beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) into SANS experiments. OAM neutron waves possess a helical wavefront and carry quantized angular momentum, offering a novel degree of freedom for scattering. Previous studies demonstrated the generation of OAM neutron beams using q-fold fork dislocation gratings. Building on this capability, we aim to provide a brighter OAM input beams at SANS with extremely high aspect ratio grating structures. This approach is particularly promising for studying magnetic materials and systems with topological order, including skyrmion lattices and chiral spin textures, that are often challenging to resolve with conventional SANS.