Concept for a high-resolution, high-intensity tof-diffractometer

A novel concept for a time-of-flight spectrometer is presented. High neutron intensity is achieved by allowing multiple frame overlap of the neutron pulses. The time of flight of the neutrons is determined from both, the arrival time of the neutrons at the detector and its dependency of the scattering angle. For the latter, a one-dimensional position sensitive detector is necessary. The evaluation of the time versus scattering-angle plot gives the diffraction pattern. The main advantages of the instrument concept are (i) a decoupling of intensity and resolution and (ii) the possibility to optimise the two contradictory quantities intensity and contrast of the neutron spectra. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.