Reflectometer D17

D17 is the first ILL dedicated reflectometer and it has been designed to be as flexible as possible in resolution and modes of operation. The instrument is suitable for the analysis of surface structures in solids and solid/liquid interfaces. Horizontal surface experiments, such as free liquids, will suffer from a severe restriction in Q-range and flux and are thus not recommended for this instrument.

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Instrument description

Guide hall n°1, Cold guide H18

Horizontal scattering geometry, vertical surfaces

Monochromator

Ni/Ti multilayer stack

Wavelength 5 Å

0.005 Å-1 < q < 1.5 Å-1

Resolution Δλ/λ = 4%

Polarization option

Fe/Si Multilayer polarizing monochromator

Wavelength 5.5 Å

0.005 Å-1 < q < 1.5 Å-1

Resolution Δλ/λ = 4%

Polarizing mirror analyzer for specular reflection

3He gas cell polarizing analyzer (covering the detector solid angle) for off-specular reflection

Precession coil primary flipper (~100% efficient)

Radio Frequency secondary flipper (~100% efficient)

Flipping ratio of 30 for polarization analysis

Time of Flight

Chopper speed 0-1000 rpm

Chopper separation 4-80 mm

Chopper phase 0-45 deg

0.002 Å-1 < q < 4 Å-1

Resolution 0.1-20% (wavelength dependent)

Choppers automatically stopped with windows open for monochromatic modes

Collimation

Slit separation 3.2 m

Maximum slit width 10 mm (this may be increased to full width of 30 mm)

Precision 10 µm

Orientation vertical

Sample position

White beam flux 9.6x109 n/cm2/s

Beam area at sample 10x70 mm

Motors rotation, translation, goniometer and height

Detector

EMBL delay-line type

Max. count rate 300 kHz

Translation 1.1-3.4 m

Rotation -2 to -45 deg.

Size 250x500 mm

Resolution 2.2x3 m2

Sample Environments

Heater stage < 400oC

Water bath, -10 < T < 80oC

5 position sample changer

Liquids changer

Humidity chamber

Off-line Langmiur-Blodgett preparation

Quartz window cryomagnet < 2.1 Tesla, 1.5 < T < 300K (can take dilution insert for T > 50 mK)

XYZ coils (B < 0.01 Tesla) and quartz window cryostat, 1.5 < T < 300 K (can also take dilution insert)

Electromagnet, B < 1 Telsa for 15 mm pole separation

D17 is the first ILL dedicated reflectometer and it has been designed to be as flexible as possible in resolution and modes of operation. The supermirror-coated guide provides the highest white beam flux at the sample position in the ILL of 9.6x109 n/s/cm2.  This flux, combined with the low instrumental background, allows reflectivities down to 10-8 to be measured.  

D17 operates in three modes, time-of-flight, monochromatic and polarising. The time-of-flight mode is realised by a double chopper system with variable phase and separation. The useful wavelength range is from 2-20Å; the upper limit set by a frame overlap mirror. The other two modes use multilayer monochromators followed by a composite Ni mirror device to remove long wavelength contamination. Initially the monochromatic and polarising modes will run at a fixed wavelength of 5Å with a base resolution of 4%. Changing between time-of-flight and monochromatic modes of operation takes approximately 15 minutes so users are free to change within a single experiment.

The wide angle multidetector allows the simultaneous measurement of background and off-specular scattering, spanning from 5o at sample-detector distance 3.4m to 13o at 1.1m

When operating in time-of-flight mode, a reflectivity curve over an order of magnitude in scattering vector may be measured without moving the sample or detector. The time-of-flight resolution, due to a double chopper system, is entirely flexible and may be selected to maximise flux, meaning that useful reflectivity curves may be measured in less than a minute.  Kinetic measurements, where the sample changes with time, are therefore entirely feasible.  This flexibility in resolution is not available at pulsed sources.

D17 has a wide variety of sample environments, however if you cannot find what you require, please contact the instrument team who will be happy to help develop new apparatus in collaboration.

The instrument is suitable for the analysis of surface structures, buried interfaces and in-plane correlations in solids and solid/liquid interfaces. Horizontal surface experiments, such as free liquids, will suffer from a severe restriction in Q-range and flux and are thus not recommended for this instrument.  These experiments must be done on the FIGARO reflectometer.

 


More details in: D17: the new reflectometer at the ILL, R. Cubitt and G. Fragneto, Appl. Phys. A 74 [Suppl.], S329-S331 (2002)

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