New opportunities for quasielastic and inelastic neutron scattering at steady-state sources using mechanical selection of the incident and final neutron energy

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Mamontov, Eugene

Affiliations: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: We propose a modification of the neutron wide-angle velocity selector (WAVES) device that enables inelastic (in particular, quasielastic) scattering measurements not relying on the neutron time-of-flight. The proposed device is highly suitable for a steady-state neutron source, somewhat similar to a triple-axis spectrometer, but with simultaneous selection of the incident and final neutron energy over a broad range of scattering momentum transfer. Both the incident and final neutron velocities are defined by the WAVES geometry and rotation frequency. The variable energy transfer is achieved through the natural variation of the velocity of the transmitted neutrons as a function of the scattering angle component out of the equatorial plane.

Keywords: Quasielastic neutron scattering, inelastic neutron scattering, instrumentation

DOI: 10.3233/JNR-150019

Journal: Journal of Neutron Research, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 21-28, 2015