130 Scopus citations

Abstract

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is home to the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), a high-flux research reactor, and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the world's most intense source of pulsed neutron beams. The unique co-localization of these two sources provided an opportunity to develop a suite of complementary small-angle neutron scattering instruments for studies of large-scale structures: the GP-SANS and Bio-SANS instruments at the HFIR and the EQ-SANS and TOF-USANS instruments at the SNS. This article provides an overview of the capabilities of the suite of instruments, with specific emphasis on how they complement each other. A description of the plans for future developments including greater integration of the suite into a single point of entry for neutron scattering studies of large-scale structures is also provided.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)242-248
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Applied Crystallography
Volume51
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2018

Funding

This research used resources at the High Flux Isotope Reactor and the Spallation Neutron Source, which are DOE Office of Science User Facilities operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory Center for Structural Molecular Biology (FWP ERKP291) is supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the US Department of Energy. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has a long history of small-angle scattering. The National Center for Small-Angle Scattering Research (NCSASR), a national user facility sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy, developed and operated a 10 m pinhole small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) instrument and two small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) instruments (Koehler, 1986). A 10 m pinhole SANS instrument was located at the Oak Ridge Research Reactor and a 30 m SANS instrument, which used single-crystal silicon to provide a relatively high wavelength resolution, was located at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). The NCSASR operated the instrument suite as an open-access user facility. HFIR was also home to a Bonse–Hart USANS instrument (Christen et al., 1977), although this was not part of the NCSASR. This instrument was later upgraded to greatly improve its performance (Agamalian et al., 1997). This suite of instruments afforded researchers a range of experimental capabilities until the 1990s.

Keywords

  • ORNL
  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • scientific user facilities
  • small-angle neutron scattering
  • ultra-small-angle neutron scattering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The suite of small-angle neutron scattering instruments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this