Demonstration of a novel focusing small-angle neutron scattering instrument equipped with axisymmetric mirrors

Abstract

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) is the most significant neutron technique in terms of impact on science and engineering. However, the basic design of SANS facilities has not changed since the technique's inception about 40 years ago, as all SANS instruments, save a few, are still designed as pinhole cameras. Here we demonstrate a novel concept for a SANS instrument based on axisymmetric focusing mirrors. We build and test a small prototype, which shows a performance comparable to that of conventional large SANS facilities. By using a detector with 48-μm pixels, we build the most compact SANS instrument in the world. This work, together with the recent demonstration that such mirrors could increase the signal rate at least 50-fold, for large samples, while improving resolution, paves the way to novel SANS instruments, thus affecting a broad community of scientists and engineers.

High-resolution neutron depolarization microscopy of the ferromagnetic transitions in Ni3Al and HgCr2Se4 under pressure

“…Wolter optics have been previously described and demonstrated to form neutron images [41,42]. The optic employed here has a magnification of 4, total focal length of 3.2 m, f 1 = 0.64 m, a diameter of about 3.5 cm, and overall length of about 6 cm [42,44]. The three 0.2 mm thick foil mirrors are composed of pure nickel, so that neutrons of 5 Å incident on the mirror surface at an angle less than about 0.5 • are totally reflected.…”

Biological small-angle neutron scattering: recent results and development

“…The optimization of all instrument elements, including guides, optical elements and detectors, is required to optimize signal to noise. In this context, several promising developments have recently been reported on neutron optics (Chen et al, 2016;Radulescu et al, 2015;Dewhurst, 2014;Liu et al, 2013;Hammouda et al, 2013) and detectors (Noda et al, 2016;Kanaki et al, 2013).…”

A Focusing Test of a Multiple Segmented Ellipsoidal Neutron-Focusing Mirror for a Compact-Focusing SANS Instrument

“…It is therefore able to install them even at a place close to the neutron source, which enables focusing from the upper stream of the beam line to utilize the emitted neutrons more efficiently [7]. A metal substrate made with electroless nickel-phosphorus (NiP) plating is a good candidate for producing optical devices because of its amorphous structure, good machinability and hardness, and capability of being applicable to mostly any type of substrate material [8,9,10].…”