The SONATE project, a French CANS for Materials Sciences Research

TL;DR

The SONATE project aims to develop a compact accelerator-based neutron source in France to replace the Orph{é}e reactor, providing versatile instruments with performance comparable to existing facilities.

Contribution

This paper presents the design and expected performance of the SONATE neutron source, a novel compact accelerator-based facility with dual operation modes for materials research.

Findings

Simulations indicate instrument performance comparable to Orph{é}e and ISIS.

Design includes two target stations with different pulse modes for diverse experiments.

Expected peak current of 100 mA with 50-80 kW power on target.

Abstract

We describe the Compact Accelerator-based Neutron Source SONATE which we are aiming for to replace the close Orph{\'e}e reactor at Saclay, France. The SONATE source would serve an instrumental suite of about 10 instruments. The instruments would be split into low resolution instruments and higher resolution instruments. Our reference design is based on a proton accelerator operating at an energy in the range 20-30 MeV. The accelerator would serve 2 target stations. The first one operating at 20Hz with 2ms long pulses serving low resolution instruments (SANS, reflectivity, imaging, spin-echo) and the second one operating at 100Hz, 200$\mu$s long pulses serving higher resolution instruments (powder diffraction, Direct Time-of-flight spectroscopy, Indirect geometry spectroscopy). The 2 operation modes would be interlaced. The peak current on the target is aimed at 100 mA with an average power on the target on the order of 50-80 kW. Numerical Monte-Carlo simulations show that we may expect instrument performances equivalent to the current instruments around Orph{\'e}e or ISIS.