Three-axis spectroscopy with remanent benders

Recent developments in sputtering techniques allow the production of polarising supermirrors with a significant in-plane magnetic anisotropy that leads to a pronounced remanent and coercive field along the easy axis of magnetisation. The magnetic layers can be magnetised by a field pulse of B-p approximate to 20 mT either parallel or anti-parallel to a guide field B-g approximate to 1 mT. We show that polarising benders using remanent supermirrors are a versatile means to perform polarisation analysis with a three-axis spectrometer. The major advantages of remanent benders are: (i) no need for spin flippers, (ii) no cross-talk between neutron polarisation and magnetic fields at the sample position, and (iii) ideal for white beam applications. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.