Investigation of solid D2, O2 and CD4 for ultracold neutron production

We have investigated the properties of the ultracold neutron converter materials deuterium D2, oxygen O2 and heavy methane CD4 in the temperature range between 8K 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 D2, O2 and CD4 are presented.