Fabrication and testing of high-performance all-metal neutron guides and axisymmetric mirrors by electrochemical replication

ABSTRACTNeutron scattering is one of the most useful methods of studying the structure of matter, with applications to biomedical, structural, magnetic and energy-related materials. Neutron-scattering instruments are installed around research reactors or accelerator-based neutron sources, and neutron guides are critical components of these facilities. They are neutron-transport optical devices consisting of state-of-the-art mirrors often tens of meters long. Here we demonstrate a novel fabrication method of all-metallic neutron guides and axisymmetric mirrors by electroplating from precision mandrels. The process allows for the fabrication of single-piece all-metal guides of prismatic and axisymmetric shapes. We also demonstrate supermirror guides and axisymmetric focusing supermirrors produced with the same technology. We present the fabrication and tests of the multilayer-coated replicated guides and optic and show that the mandrel is reproduced with high fidelity and reliability. Such supermirror optics will provide game-changing improvements in neutron techniques.

Optimization of Performance, Price, and Background of Long Neutron Guides for European Spallation Source

We describe a systematic approach for the design of long, ballistic cold, and thermal neutron guides for the European Spallation Source (ESS). The guides investigated in this work are 170 m long and are required to have a narrowing point with room for a pulse shaping chopper placed 6 m from the moderator. In addition, most guides avoid line-of-sight from the moderator to the sample. The guides are optimized in order to find a reasonable trade-off between neutronics performance and construction price. The geometries simulated are closely related to the thermal-neutron multi-length-scale diffractometer HEIMDAL and the cold-neutron multi-analyser spectrometer BIFROST. For the cold-neutron guide an inexpensive solution was found that maintains good transport properties, while avoiding line-of-sight. However, for the thermal-neutron guide the losses when avoiding line-of-sight are large and it seems a good choice to stay in line-of-sight, even though this will increase both the shielding costs and fast-neutron background. The results are of general relevance for the understanding of the relation between transport, background, and price of long neutron guides.

Нейтроноводная система ультрахолодных и холодных нейтронов на реакторе ВВР-М

The results of calculation of fluxes of ultracold (UCNs), very cold, and cold neutrons at the output of neutron guides of the UCN source with superfluid helium at the WWR-M reactor are presented. UCN density ρ_35L = 1.3 × 10^4 n/cm^3 in the trap of the electric dipole moment (EDM) spectrometer was obtained by optimizing source parameters. This UCN density in the EDM spectrometer is two orders of magnitude higher than the UCN density at the output of the available UCN sources. The flux density of cold neutrons with a wavelength of 2–20 Å at the output of a neutron guide with a cross section of 30 × 200 mm^2 should be as high as 1.1 × 10^8 n/(cm^2 s), while the flux density of very cold neutrons (50–100 Å) at the output of the same neutron guide should be 2.3 × 10^5 n/(cm^2 s). An extensive program of fundamental and applied physical research was mapped out for this source.