Boost in Functionality for a new Neutron Instrument Installed at ESS
The research infrastructure ESS, European Spallation Source ERIC, is being built in Lund. Currently one of the first fifteen neutron instruments, named FREIA, is installed at ESS. The latest technical addition to the FREIA instrument is a fast shutter system developed at Uppsala University that will be ideal for studying fast processes with delicate or liquid samples.
The purpose of ESS is to use protons to generate neutrons to analyze different type of materials in detail. This is done by accelerate protons into high energy pulses. These pulses are then used to generate neutron pulses to analyze materials in detail with different neutron instruments.
One of these neutron instruments is the FREIA instrument, which uses a technique called neutron reflectometry. In neutron reflectometry neutrons are reflected off the surface of the material without damaging it. The neutrons are reflected at different angles, providing insight into how the surface structure of a wide range of substances evolve over time.
The fast shutter system will make the FREIA instrument unique, enabling multi-angle measurements during a single neutron pulse.
Marek Jacewicz and Piotr Szaniawski will construct and test the shutter system at Ångström Laboratory at Uppsala University and participate in the installation at ESS in Lund. The work will proceed in close collaboration with the FREIA instrument team at ESS to ensure proper integration into the ESS motion and control systems.
“We are adding an important feature to the FREIA instrument, the possibility to very quickly block or pass neutrons at different angles before they reach the sample. Thanks to this, it will be possible to study rapid chemical changes and structural transformations of thin films, for instance the processes that take place in cell membranes”, says Marek Jacewicz, researcher at the Department of Physics and Astronomy and project leader for the construction of the system at Uppsala University.
The project will continue throughout 2025 and into the first half of 2026, where it will conclude with installation and final tests on the neutron beamline at ESS.
Camilla Thulin
Article Reference
Jacewicz, J. Elmer, J. Doutch, T. Arnold, J. Nightingale, T. Ekelöf, T. Nylander, H. Wacklin-Knecht, ‘Newton’ fast shutter system for neutron scattering instruments at the ESS and ISIS neutron sources. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 168556 (2023).
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2023.168556