Depolarization in polarizing supermirrors

We present data on depolarizing effects in polarizing mirrors. At typical magnetizing field strengths used in polarizing devices, depolarizations rise up to the percent level in the specular region and are shown to be successfully suppressed to 10(-4) when increasing the magnetizing field. We show evidence linking a part of this depolarization to lateral correlation of the magnetization fluctuations in the ferromagnetic layers. Effects of the supermirror factor (m), wavelength and incidence angle are studied. The findings are applied to a crossed supermirror geometry and we report a neutron beam polarization of 99.97(1)% for a beam of wavelength = 5.3 angstrom, Delta lambda/lambda = 0.1 (FWHM).