There are various types of instrument, each designed for a particular material or a specific type of analysis. 

Reflectometers are designed to investigate surfaces and interfaces by observing cold neutrons reflected at glancing angles.

Diffractometers record the intensity of neutrons at different angles which have changed their direction, but not their energy, and provide structural information.

Small-angle machines are set a long distance away from the source and the sample so as to measure very small angle of scattering accurately, to provide structural details at the nanometre scale.

Spectrometers, of which there are a number of varieties, observe the energy exchange between the neutron and the sample.

• Three-axis spectrometers select the incident neutron energy, scan the scattered neutron energy and study collective excitations in single crystals.
• Time-of-flight spectrometers measure the velocity of neutrons arriving at the detector in timed pulses and studynmolecular vibrations.
• Spin-echo spectrometers measure changes to the rate of rotation of the neutron's spin and study slow motions in polymers.

Special instruments have also been constructed - gamma-ray interferometers, exotic isotope spectrometers, neutron bottles and gravitational traps - to investigate the properties of very unstable nuclei, and to study low-energy nuclear and neutron physics.