A Rotating Crystal Time of Flight Spectrometer Using a Pulsed Neutron Source

Abstract

The design and construction of a rotating crystal spectrometer for use with a pulsed neutron source is described. The source is the tungsten target of a 33 MeV electron linear accelerator, and at 5 kV mean power the spectrometer performance is equivalent to that of a similar instrument mounted on a nuclear reactor of 4 × 1012 n/cm2 s flux. Future developments will give an order of magnitude overall improvement. This spectrometer has been shown to be useful for studies of dense gases and liquids using an incident neutron wavelength of 2.4 Å, and its performance at wavelengths between 0.5 and 6.2 Å has been assessed.