Rough Mirror as a Quantum State Selector: Analysis and Design
A.E. Meyerovich (Department of Physics, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881-0817, USA); M. Escobar (Department of Physics, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881-0817, USA); F. Lamy (ICFP, Physics Department, École Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France, Institute Max von Laue—Paul Langevin, 38042 Grenoble, France); V.V. Nesvizhevsky (Institute Max von Laue—Paul Langevin, 38042 Grenoble, France)
We report analysis of rough mirrors used as the gravitational state selectors in neutron beam and similar experiments. The key to mirror properties is its roughness correlation function (CF) which is extracted from the precision optical scanning measurements of the surface profile. To identify CF in the presence of fluctuation-driven fat tails, we perform numerical experiments with computer-generated random surfaces with the known CF. These numerical experiments provide a reliable identification procedure which we apply to the actual rough mirror. The extracted CF allows us to make predictions for ongoing GRANIT experiments. We also propose a radically new design for rough mirrors based on Monte Carlo simulations for the 1D Ising model. The implementation of this design provides a controlled environment with predictable scattering properties.
