From BASIS to MIRACLES: Benchmarking and perspectives for high-resolution neutron spectroscopy at the ESS

Abstract

Abstract.Results based on virtual instrument models for the first high-flux, high-resolution, spallation based, backscattering spectrometer, BASIS are presented in this paper. These were verified using the Monte Carlo instrument simulation packages McStas and VITESS. Excellent agreement of the neutron count rate at the sample position between the virtual instrument simulation and experiments was found, in both time and energy distributions. This achievement was only possible after a new component for a bent single crystal analyser in McStas, using a Gaussian approximation, was developed. These findings are pivotal to the conceptual design of the next generation backscattering spectrometer, MIRACLES at the European Spallation Source.

High-resolution neutron spectroscopy using backscattering and neutron spin-echo spectrometers in soft and hard condensed matter

“…The latter will extend the capabilities of quasi-elastic neutron spectroscopy by providing a clean separation of coherent and incoherent scattering, enabling the isolation of weak magnetic signals or providing access to the directional components of the magnetization of a sample. The newest backscattering spectrometer, MIRACLES, will be built at the European Spallation Source (Sweden) and will give researchers greater flexibility in choosing between flux and resolution while also extending the dynamic range of backscattering spectrometers 161 .…”

Water Dynamics in Cancer Cells: Lessons from Quasielastic Neutron Scattering

“…MIRACLES is envisioned as a quite versatile instrument in the research fields of life sciences and others and will benefit from an unprecedented flux, tuneable energy resolution in the range of 2–32 μeV, wide Q-range, flexible energy transfer with a range of ±0.6 meV around the elastic line, and an option of working in inelastic mode [ 60 , 61 , 62 ]. Finally, the time and space domain covered by Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations is ideally matched to that offered by MIRACLES, which will allow for the description of complex systems thanks to theory/experiment combinations.…”

Momentum and energy dependent resolution function of the ARCS neutron chopper spectrometer at high momentum transfer: Comparing simulation and experiment

“…In those cases, the resolution function is usually obtained by directly measuring the exact same sample at the lowest possible temperatures where dynamical processes become frozen out on the instrument measurement time window, leaving out only the instrument contributions at or close to the elastic region. This is particularly true for backscattering instruments where the energy resolution width remains largely constant over the accessible Q range and over a fairly broad dynamics range close to the elastic peak [12]. Fig.…”