Time-of-flight spin-echo small-angle neutron measurements

Abstract

We are developing a new neutron reflectometer at the second target station at ISIS. This reflectometer, OffSpec, will be specialised in measuring off-specular reflection and will be equipped with spin-echo components to profit from the new developments in measuring small angles with spin-echo techniques. We recently built a prototype time-of-flight (TOF) spin-echo SANS and/or reflectometer to test and develop new components for OffSpec. Here, we present TOF measurements in spin-echo SANS mode that demonstrates neutron refraction on sets of parallel Cu and Al wires. This demonstrates that we are able to measure angular deviations of the neutron paths of the order of several μrad. Finally, we show results of the first reflection measurements with TOF spin echo.