First Measurements at Neutron Reflectometers TNR and NERO-2

Abstract

The paper briefly describes the main units of TNR and NERO-2 neutron reflectometers installed in the hall of horizontal experimental channels of the new high-flux PIK reactor (PNPI, National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”) as part of the program for commissioning the first five stations of the instrument base of this reactor. TNR and NERO-2 neutron reflectometers are designed for conducting studies of the magnetic and nonmagnetic multilayer nanostructures, including certification of neutron-optical elements for the neutron stations. The TNR has the ability to work in measurement modes with “white” unpolarized/polarized beams and with monochromatic unpolarized/polarized neutron beams (wavelengths from 0.09 to 0.5 nm). NERO-2 is a high-resolution reflectometer with a fixed wavelength and the ability to work with both unpolarized and polarized monochromatic beams. The paper discusses the results of the first measurements of neutron-optical samples on a glass substrates carried out on TNR and NERO-2 reflectometers at the start of the PIK reactor at a power of 7 MW. Measurements were carried out on TNR with a supermirror, which is an aperiodic multilayer nanosystem of 171 pairs of alternating Ni and Ti layers (m = 2.5). On NERO-2, measurements were carried out with a mirror monochromator, which is a periodic multilayer nanosystem of 60 pairs of alternating NiMo and Ti layers with a thickness of 60 Å each.