Leader: Zaky Ibrahim

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Scientific problem:

Advancement of nuclear technologies and radiation detection crucially depend on the development of advanced materials capable of precisely controlling neutron beams. A significant scientific challenge is the inability of the current single-material systems to selectively filter specific neutron wavelengths, to enhance weak neutron signals, or to efficiently detect radiation and gases with high sensitivity. This limitation stems from a fundamental gap in understanding how complex, multi-layered heterostructures interact with neutrons and other forms of radiation. While the properties of individual materials (dielectrics, polymers, ferromagnets, superconductors, paramagnets) are known, their synergistic behavior when combined into artificial superlattices is not sufficiently explored. The key problem is the lack of a predictive framework for designing such periodic structures to achieve desired optical effects, such as developing sharp reflection resonances (stop bands) for specific neutron wavelengths or enhancing sensitivity using interfacial effects.
The following project addresses this problem by aiming at systematically designing and simulation of novel superlattices composed of the aforementioned materials. The key scientific issue is: how can the layer sequence, thickness and material properties within a superlattice be designed to control and enhance its response to neutron/gamma radiation and to enable novel measurement applications? The project will use the Polarized Neutron Reflectometry (PNR) theory or the Transfer Matrix Method (TMM) for the computer simulation of the neutron scattering length density profile and to predict the optical response of these proposed structures. The results obtained are expected to provide fundamental insights into the interaction of neutrons with gamma radiation and matter in complex layered systems and to enable the development of practical solutions for next-generation devices in neutron/optics, sensing and shielding.

Objective: 

This project aims to design different superlattices comprising dielectric, polymers, ferromagnetic, superconductor and/or paramagnetic layers for achieving new developments in neutron filters, radiation detection, enhancing the neutron signal and/or hazardous greenhouse gas sensing field. The suggested devices can filter out a specific neutron wavelength from the reflected broad spectrum. Polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR), Transfer matrix method (TMM) will be used to study the response of proposed periodic structures to different radiation using MATLAB software. These findings will hold potential in the nuclear fields, including neutron waveguides, filters, sensing, and shielding.

Tasks:
1. Introduction to periodic and quasiperiodic structures and their effect on incident waves.
2. Designing various detector devices and structures.
3. Building MATLAB codes.
4. Writing a report.

Research facility: 

Theoretical simulation