Designs of neutron microscopes for high-resolution imaging*

We demonstrate designs of two types of neutron microscopes. Like an optical microscope, the neutron microscope consists of a condenser and an image forming optics. Neutrons are focused at the sample by a condenser optic. An image forming optic focuses transmitted neutrons at the detector. The condenser optic is designed to maximize the neutron flux and to obtain desired beam divergence at the sample. The condenser consists of axisymmetric confocal paraboloid and a hyperboloid mirrors, which are concentrically nested. The image-forming optics are designed using two different types of Wolter mirrors, confocal nested ellipsoid and hyperboloid sections. The design of magnification-10 mirrors should achieve the spatial resolution of about 10 μm. Importantly, the resolution of the microscope is determined by the mirrors rather than by the beam collimation as in conventional pinhole imaging, leading to possible dramatic improvements in the signal rate and resolution. Also in contrast with pinhole imaging, in the microscope the samples are placed far from the detector to allow for bulky sample environment.