The construction is described of a monolithic thick-crystal perfect silicon neutron interferometer using an ultra-high-precision grinding technique and a combination of annealing and chemical etching that differs from the construction of prior neutron interferometers. The interferometer is the second to have been annealed after machining and the first to be annealed prior to chemical etching. Monitoring the interference signal at each post-fabrication step provides a measurement of subsurface damage and its alleviation. In this case, the strain caused by subsurface damage manifests itself as a spatially varying angular misalignment between the two relevant volumes of the crystal and is reduced from ∼10−5 rad to ∼10−9 rad by way of annealing and chemical etching.

中文翻译：

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厚晶中子干涉仪中亚表面损伤的测量和减轻

该结构描述了一种单片厚晶体完美硅中子干涉仪，采用超高精度研磨技术以及退火和化学蚀刻的组合，与现有中子干涉仪的结构不同。干涉仪是加工后第二个退火的干涉仪，也是化学蚀刻前第一个退火的干涉仪。监测每个制造后步骤的干扰信号可以测量地下损伤及其缓解情况。在这种情况下，由表面下损伤引起的应变表现为晶体的两个相关体积之间的空间变化的角度失准，并且从〜10减少−5rad 至 ∼10−9通过退火和化学蚀刻的方式进行拉德。