The Cold Neutron Chopper Spectrometer at the Spallation Neutron Source - A Review of the first 8 Years of Operation

TL;DR

The paper reviews eight years of operation of the Cold Neutron Chopper Spectrometer at ORNL, highlighting its performance, versatility, and contributions to inelastic neutron scattering research under extreme conditions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of CNCS's capabilities, experimental achievements, and its role in advancing neutron scattering techniques over its first eight years.

Findings

Over 250 user experiments conducted.

Achieved extreme conditions: T~0.05K, p>=2GPa, B=8T.

Enhanced inelastic neutron scattering under pressure.

Abstract

The first eight years of operation of the Cold Neutron Chopper Spectrometer (CNCS) at the Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge is being reviewed. The instrument has been part of the facility user program since 2009, and more than 250 individual user experiments have been performed to date. CNCS is an extremely powerful and versatile instrument and offers leading edge performance in terms of beam intensity, energy resolution, and flexibility to trade one for another. Experiments are being routinely performed with the sample at extreme conditions: T~0.05K, p>=2GPa and B=8T can be achieved individually or in combination. In particular, CNCS is in a position to advance the state of the art with inelastic neutron scattering under pressure, and some of the recent accomplishments in this area will be presented in more detail.