The Wide Angle Neutron Diffractometer squared (WAND²) - Possibilities and future

The Wide Angle Neutron Diffractometer (WAND) at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been built and continues to be, a joint project between ORNL and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). Equipped with a 1-dimensional position sensitive detector (PSD), the instrument is a multi-purpose instrument for both powder and single crystal diffraction. WAND is currently in the process of a 2-phase upgrade to become a world-class, general purpose instrument. In phase 1, finished in the beginning of 2016, the whole instrument was essentially re-built from scratch, keeping only the front-end and the 1-D PSD. Phase 2 will replace the 1-D PSD with the state-of-the-art BNL120 2-D PSD which comes from the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Currently, the detector is integrated off-line into the data acquisition architecture at HFIR and SNS. The new instrument, WAND², will have event mode capability, improved efficiency, and higher resolution and will be available for general users in the proposal call 2018A. This contribution presents results highlighting the improvements on WAND after phase 1. The upgraded instrument now accommodates the whole suite of available sample environment (50 mK–1500 K, magnetic fields (5 T), high pressures (4 GPa)). Also, the background could be reduced significantly by a factor of 2 through improved shielding, allowing the detection of weak signals. The phase 2 upgrade will require new electronics, data acquisition, and visualization and will result in an altogether new instrument: WAND².