CANISIUS is the official name of the new spin-echo neutron interferometer developed at Atominstitut, TU Wien. It enables precise control of neutron waves, something that was previously impossible.

Neutrons cannot be imagined as tiny spheres; they have wave properties similar to light. This was spectacularly demonstrated in 1974 at the nuclear reactor of the Atominstitut—and it was precisely here that researchers succeeded in exploiting this wave nature of neutrons in a novel way: A measuring device was developed that can use the angular momentum of neutrons in a particularly clever way for experiments. Not only the intrinsic angular momentum—the spin—but also the orbital angular momentum, which is related to the waveform of the neutron, can be adjusted.

The research is published in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments.