PSI ‘Neutron Microscope’ at ILL-D50 Beamline - First Results

Abstract

A high-resolution neutron imaging system referred to as 'Neutron Microscope' (NM) has been recently established as a piece of instrumental equipment at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Switzerland. It is providing the wide user community of the Neutron Imaging and Applied Materials Group (NIAG) with the capability of spatial image resolution below 5 µm at effective pixel sizes of 1.3 µm. The NM has been designed as a portable, self-contained system that can be moved between beamlines at PSI with only moderate effort. In this contribution, we report on the first results and experience with the Neutron Microscope externally, at a beamline of another neutron source outside the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source (SINQ). In June 2018, NM has been transported to the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL) and was successfully installed at the D50 beamline for four days. A gadolinium based Siemens star produced at PSI has been used for the assessment of the spatial resolution. The spatial resolution achieved using the Neutron Microscope at ILL-D50 equalled 4.5 µm. Above that, several high-resolution tomographies of various samples were acquired, of which an illustrative example is presented.

Practical tests of neutron transmission imaging with a superconducting kinetic-inductance sensor

“…In most cases these systems were characterized using a test sample with a fabricated pattern such as a Gd based Siemens star [11] or an array of 10 B dots [8,9].…”

Mapping Spatial Distribution of Pores in an Additively Manufactured Gold Alloy Using Neutron Microtomography

“…The presented investigation has been performed with the high-resolution imaging detector [29] of PSI at the D50 beamline of the ILL (Institute Laue Langevin) [30]. Neutron microscope installed at ILL-D50 beamline allowed for 2D images of the Siemens star to be positioned in contact with the scintillator screen and showed the spatial resolution of approximately 5 µm [29]. The scintillator screen ( 157 Gd 2 O 2 S:Tb [31]) of the detector system has been positioned at 11.13 m downstream of the 30 mm diameter pinhole, thus providing a neutron beam collimation ratio of 371.…”

Achieving Submicrometer Spatial Resolution for Neutron Imaging With Nuclear Emulsion

“…The major challenges in developing neutron imaging techniques include improvements in spatial resolution [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] , detection efficiency 7 , and time resolution 4,14 of neutron detectors. In particular, recent developments have improved the spatial resolution of neutron imaging to a few micrometers [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] . The highest resolution currently reported is 2 µm, which has been achieved using gadolinium oxysulfide scintillators and dedicated optics 15 .…”

“…Therefore, neutron imaging is an effective method for non-destructive and non-invasive observation to visualise the distribution of elements using the difference in their neutron attenuation coefficients 1 . The major challenges in developing neutron imaging techniques include improvements in spatial resolution [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] , detection efficiency 7 , and time resolution 4,14 of neutron detectors. In particular, recent developments have improved the spatial resolution of neutron imaging to a few micrometers [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] .…”