A 300 µA Upgrade for the ISIS Accelerator

The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) is home to the world's leading spallation neutron source ISIS [1]. The ISIS neutron producing target is driven by a 50 Hz, 800 MeV, 200 _A proton beam from a rapid cycling synchrotron, which is fed by a 70 MeV H_ drift tube linac (DTL) which in turn accepts beam from an H_ 665 keV Cockcroft-Walton preinjector. The ever increasing international demand for neutrons has motivated a bid to build a second target station at ISIS, for which £100 million funding has recently been approved by the U.K. government [2]. The second target station, operating at 10 Hz, will provide new scientific opportunities in soft condensed matter, biology and advanced materials.     

How the NEUWAVE workshop series has pushed neutron imaging developments

In 2008, a series of international workshops—named NEUtron WAVElength-dependent Imaging (NEUWAVE)—was initiated after several decisions were taken to build new neutron spallation sources in the world, namely target station two of ISIS in the UK, J-PARC in Japan, SNS in the US, and the future ESS, now being built in Sweden. The aim was to collect existing knowledge about energy-dependent effects in neutron imaging, but also to develop new energy-selective imaging methods for the upcoming spallation sources, and also for steady-state sources using energy selecting devices for neutrons. The special format was a workshop with plenty of discussions but without explicit publications, where participants discussed not their past work, but their ideas and future plans. This paper gives a résumé after nine such meetings and highlights the most important progress features. The series will continue in 2019 with NEUWAVE-10 to be organized by Paul Scherrer Institut.     

Scientific Review: New Opportunities for Data Analysis Software: An International Collaboration

On three continents major new neutron scattering facilities are under construction that will provide unprecedented opportunities for scientific discovery. The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) under construction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will become operational in 2006, the Japanese Spallation Source is planned for completion in 2007, and the second target station at ISIS is due to come on-line in 2008. All three will be equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation, large detector arrays and, with the associated increases in flux, will deliver orders of magnitude increases in data volume. Current data visualization and analysis software will be seriously challenged to keep pace with these changes.     

Startup of the high-intensity ultracold neutron source at the Paul Scherrer Institute

Ultracold neutrons (UCN) can be stored in suitable bottles and observed for several hundreds of seconds. Therefore UCN can be used to study in detail the fundamental properties of the neutron. A new user facility providing ultracold neutrons for fundamental physics research has been constructed at the Paul Scherrer Institute, the PSI UCN source. Assembly of the facility finished in December 2010 with the first production of ultracold neutrons. Operation approval was received in June 2011. We give an overview of the source and the status at startup.     

Linear collider flavour identification status report: Sensors for the international linear collider

The Linear Collider Flavour Identification (LCFI) collaboration is continuing the work to develop column-parallel CCDs (CPCCD) and CMOS readout chips to be used in the vertex detector at the international linear collider (ILC). The CPCCD achieves several orders of magnitude faster readout than conventional CCDs because every column is equipped with amplifier and ADC, enabling efficient data taking with low occupancy. Already two generations of CPCCDs and readout chips have been manufactured and the first chips have been fully tested. The second generation devices are now being evaluated. A new CCD-based device, the in-situ storage image sensor (ISIS) has also been developed. The ISIS offers numerous advantages in terms of relaxed readout, increased radiation hardness and great immunity to EMI. In this paper we present the results from the tests of the CPCCDs, readout chips and ISIS, as well as the plans for future developments. for the Linear Collider Flavour Identification (LCFI) Collaboration     

The ISIS pulsed muon facility: Past,present and future

The pulsed muon facility at ISIS of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory has been operational since March 1987. It is now fully scheduled for condensed matter research using polarised surface muons, atomic physics with sub-surface muons, and μCF experiments requiring negative cloud muons. The design and performance of the present beam are briefly discussed and recent improvements to the facility are described. Essential future upgrades have recently received international support and funding, which will lead to a complete facility comparable in extent to those of the continuous meson factories at PSI and TRIUMF, but with the unique advantages of the pulsed nature of the source. Such an upgraded facility will provide unprecedented opportunities for muon science at ISIS, unmatched by any other facility until the end of the decade.     

Superthermal source of ultracold neutrons for fundamental physics experiments

Ultracold neutrons (UCNs) play an important role for precise measurements of the properties of the neutron and its interactions. During the past 25 years, a neutron turbine coupled to a liquid deuterium cold neutron source at a high-flux reactor has defined the state of the art for UCN production, despite a long history of efforts towards a new generation of UCN sources. This Letter reports a world-best UCN density available for users, achieved with a new source based on conversion of cold neutrons in superfluid helium. A conversion volume of 5 liters provides at least 274,000 UCN in a single accumulation run. Cyclically repeated operation of the source has been demonstrated, as well.     

Scientific Reviews: GEM: The General Materials Diffractometer at ISIS-Multibank Capabilities for Studying Crystalline and Disordered Materials

The aim of the GEM project at the ISIS pulsed neutron source was to develop a world-leading general materials diffractometer [1-5]. In mid-1995, a proposal from a Collaborative Research Group (CRG) headed by P. Day (The Royal Institution) and J. Enderby (University of Bristol) (Figure 1) was awarded funding by the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for the construction of GEM. This came into operation during 1999 with continued work on enhancing the detector array resulting from funding obtained in collaboration with the RIKEN laboratory in Japan. Additional funding was subsequently obtained from EPSRC by the ISIS Facility in order to continue work on completion of the detector array.     

Neutron astronomy: A possible new research direction

A new method for studying the diffuse matter in space based on observing high-energy neutrons is proposed. The proposed approach uses the fact that high-energy neutrons (with energies of hundreds of Gev) can travel distances comparable to the distance between the Earth and the Kuiper belt. A background of neutrons (at the given energies) from beyond the Solar System is ruled out due to decay. It is shown that the expected flux of high-energy neutrons can be recorded by facilities using the data on the density of the gas and dust component obtained when analyzing the trajectories of automatic interplanetary stations.     

Use of CR-39 films for nuclear radiation shielding efficacy evaluation of lining materials for combat vehicles

All materials provide, to a lesser or greater extent, shielding against nuclear radiations. Armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) have steel as the structural material, which appears to be a reasonably good gamma and neutron shield material but a shield of pure iron would not be equally effective against whole range of neutron energies as it has a few resonances in electron volt range, and it reduces energy of fast neutrons to lower energy neutrons. These neutrons will be absorbed through radiative capture and emit gamma radiations. Thus it is essential that an effective shield should contain a large amount of moderating material, hydrogen being preferred with low atomic number materials (B, C, Li) and lead (Pb) to ensure that the neutrons do not diffuse at intermediate energies in the shield as well as gamma attenuation will also take place. In order to have a suitable shield material for armoured vehicles which serves as neutron and gamma radiation attenuator, polyethylene polymer with fillers lining materials are preferred. These materials were evaluated against gamma and fast neutrons using radioactive sources for suitability to fitment into combat vehicle as per the requirement of protection factor values. The detector for gamma radiation was used as Nal(Tl) while for neutron, CR-39 film was used.      

The crystal acceleration effect for cold neutrons

A new mechanism of neutron acceleration is discussed and studied experimentally in detail for cold neutrons passing through the accelerated perfect crystal with the energies close to the Bragg one. The effect arises due to the following reason. The crystal refraction index (neutron-crystal interaction potential) for neutron in the vicinity of the Bragg resonance sharply depends on the parameter of deviation from the exact Bragg condition, i.e. on the crystal-neutron relative velocity. Therefore the neutrons enter into accelerated crystal with one neutron-crystal interaction potential and exit with the other. Neutron kinetic energy cannot vary inside the crystal due to its homogeneity. So after passage through such a crystal neutrons will be accelerated or decelerated because of the different energy change at the entrance and exit crystal boundaries.     

Electron volt neutron spectrometers

The advent of pulsed neutron sources has made available intense fluxes of epithermal neutrons (500 meV ≤E≤100 eV ). The possibility to open new investigations on condensed matter with eV neutron scattering techniques, is related to the development of methods, concepts and devices that drive, or are inspired by, emerging studies at this energy scale. Electron volt spectrometers have undergone continuous improvements since the construction of the first prototype instruments, but in the last decade major breakthroughs have been accomplished in terms of resolution and counting statistics, leading, for example, to the direct measurement of the proton 3-D Born–Oppenheimer potential in any material, or to quantitatively probe nuclear quantum effects in hydrogen bonded systems. This paper reports on the most effective methods and concepts for energy analysis and detection, as well as devices for the optimization of electron volt spectrometers for different applications. This is set in the context of the progress made up to date in instrument development. Starting from early stages of development of the technique, particular emphasis will be given to the Vesuvio eV spectrometer at the ISIS neutron source, the first spectrometer where extensive scientific, as well as research and development programmes have been carried out. The potential offered by this type of instrumentation, from single particle excitations to momentum distribution studies, is then put in perspective into the emerging fields of eV spectroscopy applied to cultural heritages and neutron irradiation effects in electronics.     

Non-invasive characterisation of SIX Japanese hand-guards (tsuba)

In this work we present a systematic study of Japanese sword hand-guards (tsuba) carried out by means of non-invasive techniques using neutrons. Several tsuba from different periods, belonging to the Japanese Section of the Stibbert Museum, were analysed using an innovative approach to characterise the bulk of the samples, coupling two neutron techniques, namely Time of Flight Neutron Diffraction (ToF-ND) and Nuclear Resonance Capture Analysis (NRCA). The measurements were carried out on the same instrument: the INES beam-line at the ISIS spallation pulsed neutron source (UK). NRCA analysis allows identifying the elements present in the sample gauge volume, while neutron diffraction is exploited to quantify the phase distribution and other micro-structural parameters of the metal specimen. The results show that all samples are made of high-quality metal, either steel or copper alloy, with noticeable changes in composition and working techniques, depending on the place and time of manufacturing.     

The O–H stretching band in ice Ih derived via eV neutron spectroscopy on VESUVIO using the new very low angle detector bank

Strong demand exists for an experimental facility enabling new experimental investigations on condensed matter systems based on epithermal neutron scattering at high energy and low momentum transfers. This need will be met by the very low angle detector (VLAD) bank, to be installed on the VESUVIO spectrometer at the ISIS spallation neutron source. The equipment will operate in the scattering angular range 1°<2θ<5°. Scattering measurements from a polycrystalline ice sample using a VLAD prototype demonstrates the effectiveness of the detection technique adopted for the construction of the full detector array. The resulting density of states in ice is 9±2 atoms/cell, in agreement with previous measurements. PACS 61.12.Ex; 63.20.Dj; 63.50.+x     

Search for scission neutrons using specific angular correlations in 235U fission induced by slow polarized neutrons

The experimental data concerning scission (or prescission) neutrons are very contradictory—the relative part of these neutrons in the prompt fission neutrons varies from 1 to 35% owing to arbitrary assumptions made in different analyses. To solve this problem, we have used a new alternative method to search for the scission neutrons. We have found the left-right asymmetry of prompt-fission-neutron (PFN) emission caused by sp-wave interference in the entrance channel of the reaction and the P-odd asymmetry of the PFN emission caused by parity nonconservation at the exit channel of the fission process. Both effects cannot reside in PFN evaporated by excited fission fragments. The scission (or prescission) neutrons are responsible for these effects. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

The performance of volume selection sequences for in vivo NMR spectroscopy: implications for quantitative MRS.

Previous work has demonstrated that deficiencies in volume selection sequences used in magnetic resonance spectroscopy may compromise the quality of the spectra obtained. In this paper, further studies on the ISIS and PRESS sequences are presented. Under conditions of partial saturation, ISIS can exhibit serious contamination with extraneous signal, particularly when a small volume of interest (VOI) is selected. ISIS protocols should therefore use VOIs that are large relative to the target volume, and repetition times that are as long as practicable. In PRESS, contamination is found to be minimised by using a VOI that is small relative to the target volume, and to be independent of repetition time. PRESS performance is also independent of echo time, except when very short echo times are used. These results are consistent with previously published work on ISIS and PRESS, and it is now possible to establish generic features of these sequences and to understand the implications for quantitative spectroscopy. T(1)-weighting of contamination in ISIS can compromise both relative and absolute quantification techniques in several respects. Contamination in PRESS is largely independent of relaxation times and would be easier to model and correct for in the context of quantitative spectroscopy.     

KARMEN: Neutrino oscillation limits and new results with the upgrade

The neutrino experiment KARMEN is situated at the beam stop neutrino source ISIS which provides ν_μ's, ν_e's and from the π⁺−μ⁺-decay at rest. The oscillation channels ν_{μ → νe} and are investigated with a 56 t liquid scintillation calorimeter. No evidence for oscillations could be found with KARMEN, resulting in 90% CL exclusion limits of sin²(2Θ) < 8.5 · 10⁻³ ( ) and sin²(2Θ) < 4.0 · 10⁻² (ν_μ → ν_e) for Δm² > 100 eV². In 1996, the experiment has been upgraded by an additional veto counting system with a total coverage of 300 m². The new system allows the identification of cosmic muons in the vicinity of the detector. Vetoing these muons suppresses energetic neutrons from deep inelastic scattering of muons as well as from μ-capture by a factor of 40. Up to 1996, these neutrons represented the main background for oscillation search. The experimental sensitivity for will be significantly enhanced towards sin²(2Θ) 1.0 · 10⁻³ after a further measuring period of 2–3 years.     

Dynamic concepts in neutron polarization

A new method of polarizing a neutron beam is proposed, which in contrast to conventional polarizers allows to make use of 100% of the incident intensity. It exploits the fact, that neutrons of different spin states differ in velocity after they have passed through an arrangement of crossed static and time-dependent magnetic fields. Provided the neutrons initially being sufficiently monochromatic, the two spin states can be separated in momentum space and be forced to point into the same spatial direction by means of a momentum-dependent spin rotation procedure. With presently available magnetic field technology (or nuclear pseudomagnetism) this dynamic method is applicable at continuous sources to polarize highly monochromatic thermal neutrons as those obtained by perfect crystal diffraction. The method seems to be particularly powerful, however, in the production of polarized cold and ultra-cold neutrons, where energy spreads of 1% and more are admissible. It is shown that at pulsed sources even polychromatic neutrons can be polarized with this technique.     

Boron thin films and CR-39 detectors in BNCT: A method to measure the 10B(n,α)7Li reaction rate

The working principle of the Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is the selective delivery of a greater amount of boron to the tumor cells than to the healthy ones, followed by the neutron irradiation that will induce the emission of α-particles and recoil ⁷Li nuclei through the ¹⁰B(n,α)⁷Li reaction. The objective of this work is to present a setup composed of a boron thin film coupled with CR-39. Alpha and ⁷Li particle coming from the boron films are used to quantify neutron boron reaction and are detected by CR-39. The nuclei compounding of this detector, H, C and O, will undergo fast neutrons reactions, which will be detected in the CR-39 itself. In this way, the ¹⁰B(n,α)⁷Li reaction and the contribution of fast neutrons to the flux can be determined at the same time. These measurements are essential for treatment planning as well as for studies of the biodistribution of ¹⁰B-carrier drugs and tissue microdosimetry. The boron films were deposited on stainless steel substrates through the sputtering technique and irradiated with thermal neutrons at the reactor IEA-R1 located at IPEN, São Paulo/SP, Brazil. Here we show the first results on the characterization of these thin films and calibration of the proposed setup.