Transmission of neutrons through non-periodic magnetic lattices

We consider the problem of comparing the suitability of various magnetic lattices for the spin polarization of neutrons. To do this, we use a discrete model to construct measures of transmission through one-dimensional lattices. We examine the model for non-periodic lattices that are generated from sequences and compare them with a periodic lattice. The periodic lattice gives rise to broader regions of spin polarization so that it should be easier to produce polarized beams, whereas the non-periodic sequences produce narrow regions more suitable for fine control. The most appropriate measure to illustrate these effects is seen to be that which simply measures the difference between spin+ and spin− transmission.