CYCLOPS - Neutron Laue diffractometer
A general view
By june 2009, CYCLOPS recorded its first Laue patterns. Less than 5 seconds were enough to get excellent data from a ruby crystal of a few mm3 in size.
CYCLOPS - Neutron Laue single-crystal diffractometer
CYCLOPS (CYlindrical Ccd Laue Octagonal Photo Scintillator) is a Laue single crystal diffractometer, with an ultra-large set of area detectors. Because of the high flux on the sample from a continuous white neutron source, it will allow real-time exploration of reciprocal space and rapid structure refinement.
Applications
The application field of CYCLOPS is similar to that of both VIVALDI and OrientExpress. It shares with VIVALDI a large reciprocal space coverage and with OrientExpress a fast data acquisition rate. This makes it a unique instrument for real-time exploration of reciprocal space and rapid data collection through phase transitions.
Main applications:
- Rapid nuclear structure determination since a complete data collection is possible in few minutes
- Rapid reciprocal-space surveys; identification of twinning and incommensurability
- Preferred orientation in textured samples can be investigated in a very short measuring time
- Nuclear and magnetic phase transitions
- Diffuse scattering
- Magnetic domains
- etc...
Instrument layout
CYCLOPS, uses a double octagonal array of neutron CCD detectors (Photonic Science) to cover a cylinder similar in size to VIVALDI, but with higher efficiency and real-time read-out. Compared to SXD at ISIS, CYCLOPS has a much higher neutron flux at the sample due to the continuous neutron source and focusing guide, but exhibits a higher background.