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Neutron technologies overview

At the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), our mission is to advance neutron science by providing world-class instrumentation, state-of-the-art technology, and pioneering engineering solutions. Neutron scattering plays a vital role in fundamental research and industrial applications, and maintaining ILL's position as a global leader in this field requires continuous innovation in neutron delivery, optics, detection, and instrumentation. 

The advancements presented in the dedicated pages below are a testament to the dedication and technical expertise of our scientific and technical staff. Through their work, we strengthen ILL’s position as a world-leading neutron facility and ensure that our neutron technologies continue to support breakthrough research for years to come.

In this page, the ILL's different neutron technology R&D services are briefly introduced. Further information can be found following the links to the dedicated pages.

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Neutron delivery guides and infrastructure

At the ILL, we design the entire neutron delivery infrastructure that channels neutrons from the reactor core to our state-of-the-art instruments. New and upgraded instruments through the modernisation programmes have relied heavily on renewed neutron guide systems, with the H24 thermal and H15 cold-neutron guides being among the most complex systems ever installed at a neutron scattering facility.

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Neutron optics

Neutron optics are essential components of neutron scattering instruments, shaping the incident beam by controlling its direction, divergence, energy, wavelength, and polarisation. The ILL Neutron Optics Service develops and produces the neutron optical components required to maintain the leading role of the ILL.  Neutron optics include: Crystal Monochromators, Supermirrors, Polarised 3He.

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Neutron detectors

Neutron detectors are crucial to neutron scattering science and instrumentation. Neutron detectors are often highly specialised, with many being one-off developments, which drives ILL's commitment to in-house detector development. Depending on the instrument, detectors may have active areas ranging from a few cm² to several m², spatial resolutions between 1 mm and several cm, and counting rates from a few Hz to several MHz.

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Engineering : design, calculation and project management

To make the most of the neutrons produced by the ILL reactor and delivered to the scientific instruments, it is essential to design and integrate all components in a structured and consistent way. Our design, calculations, and project management service brings together engineering expertise, advanced simulations, and practical project coordination to support the development of neutron scattering instrumentation and facility infrastructure. We turn scientific and technical requirements into precise engineering specifications, forming the basis of conceptual designs ensuring that systems perform reliably, safely, and efficiently.

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Advanced Sample environments

ILL’s Advanced Neutron Environment Service (SANE) is responsible for the development, maintenance and user support for all equipment used to subject samples to extreme and specialised experimental conditions, such as extreme temperatures (30 mK to 2000 K) and pressures (up to 220 kbar), magnetic fields (up to 40 T), specialised sample holders, humidity control, electric fields, etc. The technology and expertise hold by the SANE plays a crucial role in the success of many highly complex experiments performed at the ILL, alolwoing us to fully exploit the power of neutron scattering.

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Instrument control and electronics

Instrument control and data management at ILL encompass the development of custom software, electronics hardware, and computing resources for data acquisition, management, archival, and data treatment and analysis. NOMAD, ILL’s open-source instrument control software, plays a central role in experiment automation and data collection. NOMAD Remote, integrated with VISA, allows researchers to manage all aspects of their experiment from a virtual machine—controlling sample environments, motor movements, and data acquisition in real time.

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Scientific computing services

The Scientific Computing service supports ILL scientists, students and visitors in a number of activities including data reduction, data analysis, instrument simulation and sample simulation. The production of high-quality data is the cornerstone of a successful experiment. However, achieving meaningful results requires the expertise to effectively use a set of specialised digital tools. At the ILL, we offer a comprehensive service supported by experts in numerical simulation and software development, drawing on our extensive experience in neutron scattering.

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IT - VISA

Developed at ILL and adopted by a growing global community, VISA is becoming the standard for data access at major facilities such as DESY, ESRF, SOLEIL, ALBA, and EuXFEL. In the spirit of Open Science, it also expands public access to cutting-edge research. VISA brings the scientist to the data. Each instance is linked to ILL’s scientific storage system, providing instant access to experimental data and analysis tools. The platform ensures reproducibility by allowing researchers to revisit and re-analyse data using the same software versions as in previous studies.

Related pages
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Instrument and Science groups overview
The ILL is a user facility welcoming scientists from all around the world to perform cutting-edge experiments fostering progress in a variety of scientific and technological domains. Neutrons are used at the ILL to probe the microscopic structure and dynamics of a broad range of materials at molecu…
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Scientific domains
Neutrons are unique as probes into matter; they can reveal what other techniques cannot see. They therefore provide a powerful tool for investigating the natural world and have long played a role at the forefront of modern scientific research.As particularly ingenious techniques and precise instrum…
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Neutron technologies overview
At the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), our mission is to advance neutron science by providing world-class instrumentation, state-of-the-art technology, and pioneering engineering solutions. Neutron scattering plays a vital role in fundamental research and industrial applications, and maintaining ILL'…