Investigation of solid D2D2, O2O2 and CD4CD4 for ultracold neutron production

We have investigated the properties of the ultracold neutron converter materials deuterium D2D2, oxygen O2O2 and heavy methane CD4CD4 in the temperature range between 8 K and room temperature. The experimental program was performed at the FUNSPIN beamline of the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source (SINQ) at Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI). In this paper the measured cold neutron total cross-sections for D2D2, O2O2 and CD4CD4 are presented.