Production and neutron reflectivity of replica supermirror

Placing a neutron guide tube very near the cold neutron source in a reactor core or an accelerator target system allows one to extract more very low energy neutrons. However, this requires that the guide tube should be extremely radiation resistant. Therefore, we developed a metal-based neutron supermirror to be used in high radiation environments. A conventional (Ni–Ti) supermirror is deposited onto a float glass substrate and Cu is electroplated on top of the mirror. The glass is then removed, leaving the replica supermirror on the copper. We describe the fabrication process and demonstrate that the mirror has good reflectivity, essentially that of a glass-based supermirror.