US begins construction of unique neutron imaging instrument to accelerate materials discovery
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US begins construction of unique neutron imaging instrument to accelerate materials discovery energy.gov/science
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are deeply penetrating, carry no charge, and are nondestructive, making them suitable for studying, for example, biological structures, metal stresses and defects, and magnetic behavior in quantum materials. In conventional neutron scattering, as neutrons scatter in a material, they reveal information about an atom’s location and behavior. Neutron imaging, on the other hand, measures in transmission— as neutrons pass through a material—to produce neutron radiographs, much like clinical x-rays. “For example,” Bilheux says, “if you want to see lithium as it’s moving through the battery, you need contrast to isolate the signal coming from lithium ions.” Building the VENUS beamline at SNS will leverage the facility’s accelerator-based neutron source and provide advanced imaging techniques that complement those currently available at the laboratory’s steady-state neutron source, the High Flux Isotope Reactor. The SNS pulsed-source accelerator enables the time-of-flight technique, which uses timestamped neutrons that can be adjusted and preselected across a range of energies. The technique provides the tunable contrast necessary for revealing structural information with low-energy neutrons using an approach called Bragg-edge imaging. It also pinpoints specific elements within a sample using highenergy neutrons with resonance imaging to better understand the material’s functional properties and behaviors. VENUS “For example, to distinguish HUTCH between certain heavy elements such as europium, tantalum, gadolinium, and uranium, one needs higher energy neutrons, which SNS provides,” Schematic representation of the VENUS instrument, providing time-of-flight neutron imaging capabilities, at the Bilheux says. “Measuring with US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee. Credit: Jill Hemman, ORNL. eutron imaging is about contrast—seeing something behind something else or seeing the difference between one side of your sample and the other,” says Hassina Bilheux, an instrument scientist at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ORNL reports that construction began last summer on VENUS, a state-of-the-art neutron imaging instrument, at the laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). Coupled with the SNS, a pulsed accelerator-based neutron source, VENUS will be the only open research facility platform in the United States to provide timeof-flight neutron imaging capabilities to national and international users from government, academia, and industry. Bilheux is a lead developer in the VENUS project. The scientific capabilities of VENUS will support the research goals of DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences program within the Office of Science as well as other DOE programs or offices such as Biological and Environmental Research, Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, and Nuclear Energy.
This new instrument will provide a platform for studying in real time t
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