Upgrade of the MARI spectrometer at ISIS

The MARI direct geometry time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at ISIS has been upgraded with an $m=3$ supermirror guide and new detector electronics. This has resulted in a flux gain of ${\approx}6{\times}$ at $\lambda=1.8$ {\AA}, and improvements on discriminating electrical noise, allowing MARI to continue to deliver a high quality science program well into its fourth decade of life

I-BAND-GEM : a new way for improving BAND-GEM efficiency to thermal and cold neutrons

.The BAND-GEM detector represents one of the novel thermal neutron detection devices that have been developed in order to fulfil the needs of high intensity neutron sources that, like ESS (the European Spallation Source), will start operation in the next few years. The first version of this detector featured a detection efficiency of about 40% for neutrons with a wavelength of 4 angstrom, a spatial resolution of about 6mm and a rate capability in the order of some MHz/cm(2). The novelty of this device is represented by an improved 3D converter cathode (10 cm thick) based on (B4C)-B-10-coated aluminum grids positioned in a controlled gas mixture volume put on top of a Triple GEM amplifying stage. The position where the neutron interacts in the converter depends on their energy and it was observed that the first version of the detector would suffer from an efficiency decrease for long (>5 angstrom) neutron wavelength. This paper describes how the new 3D cathode allowed improving the detection efficiency at long neutron wavelengths while keeping all the benefits of the first BAND-GEM version

A high-efficiency thermal neutron detector based on thin 3D

A new position-sensitive thermal neutron detector based on boron-coated converters has been developed as an alternative to today's standard 3He-based technology for application to thermal neutron scattering. The key element of the development is a novel 3D 10B4C converter which has been ad hoc designed and realized with the aim of combining a high neutron conversion probability via the 10B(n, α)7Li reaction together with an efficient collection of the produced charged particles. The developed 3D converter is composed of thin aluminium grids made by a micro-waterjet technique and coated on both sides with a thin layer of 10B4C. When coupled to a GEM detector this converter allows reaching neutron detection efficiencies close to 50% at neutron wavelengths equal to 4 Å. In addition, the new detector features a spatial resolution of about 5 mm and can sustain counting rates well in excess of $1\ \text{MHz/cm}^2$ . The newly developed neutron detector will enable time-resolved measurements of different kind of samples in neutron scattering experiments at high flux spallation sources and can find a use in applications where large areas and custom geometries of thermal neutron detectors are foreseen

Experimental demonstration of a compact epithermal neutron source based on a high power laser

Dataset underpinning the results presented in the article titled, "Experimental demonstration of a compact epithermal neutron source based on a high power laser" published in Journal of Applied Physics (2017