Scientific Reviews: Neutron Polarization Analysis Corrections Made Easy

Neutron scattering techniques with polarization analysis are becoming increasingly popular for measuring the spin dependent neutron cross-sections, particularly in the field of neutron reflectometry. Instrumentation and the appropriate polarizing optics have been developed and there is now a wide selection of neutron instruments with polarization analysis. The optics are never perfect, however, and the resulting data is always contaminated with unwanted neutron spin states. A correction for the instrument polarization efficiency should therefore always be made to the data. This correction is often ignored, particularly in reflectometry, perhaps due to lack of experience with polarization analysis, perhaps because it is believed to be too complicated. In fact, polarization corrections are quite straightforward, as is the calibration of the instrument