Neutron Spin Echo Spectroscopy at the Spallation Neutron Source

Neutron spin echo (NSE) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful techniques to study the dynamics of soft matter. The SNS-NSE instrument [1] at the ORNL Spallation Neutron Source is the first, and to date the only one, instrument for high resolution NSE spectroscopy installed at a pulsed neutron source. The main advantage of the pulsed source NSE is the ability to resolve the neutron wavelength and collect neutrons over a wider bandwidth. This allows us to determine S(Q,t) on a flexibly chosen quasi continuous (Q,t) grid that can be selected a posteriori, trading statistical error with grid resolution.

We will present instrument capabilities of the SNS-NSE instrument and examples of soft matter experiments that have been performed using the SNS-NSE instrument. We will also show a new data reduction software called DrSPINE [2] that is capable to utilize all the information contained in a series of experiments consistently in one step and thus reduce the data from a pulsed-source SNS-NSE spectrometer as well as from a reactor-based J-NSE spectrometer [3].

References:

[1] Ohl M. et al., Nucl. Inst. and Meth. A 696 (2012) 85-99

[2] P.A. Zolnierczuk et al. EPJ Web of Conferences, 83 (2015) 03020

[3] Holderer O. et al., Mess. Sci. Technol. 19 (2008) 034022