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Instrument List

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Detail of instruments by group

Diffraction

Technique: Powder diffraction
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
D4 Disordered materials diffractometer

- Short and intermediate range order in liquids and amorphous materials
- Solving environment of atoms combining isotopic substitution and methods of first and second difference
- Magnetic structure studies on very absorbent systems (containing Gd, Eu, etc.)
- Pair-Distribution Function (PDF) analysis of powder diffraction patterns

Powder diffraction
Energy
Environment
Soft matter and polymers
D7 Diffuse scattering spectrometer

- Magnetic short range order in frustrated magnets and spin-glasses
- Studies of non-collinear ferromagnetism
- Extended magnetic defects in antiferromagnetic materials
- Studies of hydrogen diffusion in metals
- Separation of collective and single particle excitations

Powder diffraction
Magnetism and quantum materials
Chemistry of materials
D20 High intensity two-axis diffractometer with variable resolution

- Thermodiffractometry
- Magnetism
- Kinetics
- Multi-stroboscopy
- Texture
- Very small samples
- Highly absorbing samples
- Disordered systems
- Physisorption

Powder diffraction
Magnetism and quantum materials
Chemistry of materials
Energy
D2B High-resolution two-axis diffractometer

- Structural chemistry of non-rigid molecules
- Ab-initio structure solution from powders
- Crystal and magnetic structure determination of powder compounds (even small samples)
- Dependance in temperature/pressure/magnetic field structural (or magnetic) studies for powders

Powder diffraction
Magnetism and quantum materials
Chemistry of materials
Engineering
Energy
D1B Two-axis diffractometer

- Determination of magnetic structure
- Study of spin reorientation transitions
- Phase transitions investigated by thermodiffractometry
- Time resolved experiments kinetics studies
- Dynamical studies in solid state chemistry
- In situ neutron diffraction
- In situ chemistry, chemical intercalation via solid-gas reaction
- Texture analysis
- Physisorption

Powder diffraction
Magnetism and quantum materials
Chemistry of materials
Engineering
Reactions and catalysis
Technique: Single crystal diffraction
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
D23 Thermal neutron two-axis diffractometer for single-crystals D23

- Determination of magnetic structures (in high field and/or high pressure, and at low temperature: Study of magnetic phase diagrams (field-temperature pressure-temperature, or both); Determination of magnetisation density maps (with the polarised neutron option)
- Mainly in condensed matter physics: Strongly correlated electron systems (heavy fermion systems; borocarbides compounds; low dimensional magnetic systems; charge/orbital ordering systems); Molecular magnetism

Single crystal diffraction
Magnetism and quantum materials
 
D10 4-circle diffractometer with three-axis energy analysis

- Conventional crystallography
- Magnetic crystal structures
- Modulated structures
- Phase transitions, phase diagrams
- Diffraction at extremely high or low temperatures, under pressure, or in high magnetic fields
- Diffuse scattering
- Quasi-elastic scattering
- Crystalline thin films and multilayers
- Inelastic scattering in four-circle geometry

Single crystal diffraction
Magnetism and quantum materials
Chemistry of materials
D3 Spin polarised hot neutron diffractometer

- High field configuration: Magnetic from factors; Magnetisation distributions
- Zero-field configuration: Non-collinear magnetic structures; Antiferromagnetic form factors; Spherical polarimetry
- Liquids configuration: structure of liquid and amorphous materials with high hydrogen content

Single crystal diffraction
Magnetism and quantum materials
Chemistry of materials
OrientExpress Laue-neutron diffractometer

- Minute sample orientation - Assessment of sample quality - Diffuse scattering

Single crystal diffraction
 
D9 Hot neutron 4-circle diffractometer

- General themes: structural phase transitions ; atomic anharmonicity; structural disorder; hydrogen bonding; packing of organic molecules; magnetic structures, especially Gd ; electron density studies; twinning and superlattice problems; ordering in alloys
- Fundamentals of diffraction: extinction effects; test of dynamical theory; thermal diffuse scattering; resonance scattering
- special use: atomic resolution neutron holography

Single crystal diffraction
Magnetism and quantum materials
Chemistry of materials

Large-Scale Structure

Technique: Powder diffraction
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
D16 Small momentum transfer diffractometer

- Biology/Biophysics
- Colloids/Surfactants
- Polymer physics
- Materials science
- Surface science

Powder diffraction
Small angle neutron scattering SANS
Energy
Environment
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
Health
Technique: Single crystal diffraction
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
DALI Quasi-laue diffractometer

- single-crystal neutron diffraction studies of biological macromolecules at high resolution (1.5 - 2.5Å). 
- visualisation of key hydrogen or deuterium atoms within biological macromolecules, identifying the protonation states of charged residues, the exact hydrogen-bond networks of bound small molecules or inhibitors, and the orientation of water molecules. 

Single crystal diffraction
Life sciences
Health
Technique: Small angle neutron scattering SANS
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
D11 Lowest momentum transfer & lowest background small-angle neutron scattering (SANS)

- Polymers and colloids
- Polymer blends; solutions; Micelles; Dendrimers; Liquid crystals; Gels; Reaction kinetics of mixed systems
- Materials science
- Phase separation in alloys and glasses; Morphologies of superalloys; Microporosity in ceramics; Interfaces and surfaces of catalysts
- Biological macromolecules - Size and shape of proteins; nucleic acids; Biomembranes; Drug vectors
- Magnetism
- Flux line lattices in superconductors; Magnetic correlations

Small angle neutron scattering SANS
Environment
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
Health
 
D22 Large dynamic range small-angle diffractometer

- Soft matter
- Polymer, colloids, membranes and self assembly
- Biological macromolecules in solution
- Biophysics - Magnetism, Nanoscale structure of materials
- SEC-SANS, Rheo-SANS
- Kinetic studies
- TISANE

Small angle neutron scattering SANS
Environment
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
Health
 
SAM Small-angle diffractometer

- Soft condensed matter: organic & inorganic colloidal particles, polymers blends or in solution, gels, liquid crystals, self-assembly of surfractant molecules, ionic liquids, deep eutectic solvents - Biology: proteins, nucleic acids, biomembranes, vectors for drug delivery Material science: phase separation in alloys & glasses, morphologies of superalloys, microporosity in ceramics, interfaces & surfaces of catalysts, radiation-induced damages in steels Magnetism & superconductivity: flux line lattices in superconductors, magnetic correlations, long-period structures (e.g. helimagnets), superparamagnets, magnetic nanoparticles

Small angle neutron scattering SANS
Magnetism and quantum materials
Chemistry of materials
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
D33 Massive dynamic q-range small angle diffractometer

-Nano and mesoscale materials
-Magnetism -Materials science
-Polymers and colloids
-Self assembly of surfactants
-Biology and biophysics

Small angle neutron scattering SANS
Magnetism and quantum materials
Environment
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
Health
D16 Small momentum transfer diffractometer

- Biology/Biophysics
- Colloids/Surfactants
- Polymer physics
- Materials science
- Surface science

Powder diffraction
Small angle neutron scattering SANS
Energy
Environment
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
Health
Technique: Reflectometry
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
FIGARO Fluid Interfaces Grazing Angles Reflectometer

- specular scattering from 'free liquid' (air/liquid, liquid/liquid) samples but also air/solid and solid/liquid interfaces
- off-specular scattering and GISANS from the above sample types
- kinetics phenomena on a minute or slower time scale

Reflectometry
Environment
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
Health
D17 Neutron reflectometer with horizontal scattering geometry

- Study of surfaces and buried interfaces of thin solid films and multilayers
- Solid-liquid interfaces and membranes
- Examination of off-specular reflectivity from atomic and magnetic in-plane structure
- Kinetic studies of interface evolution

Reflectometry
Environment
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
Health
SuperADAM Advanced reflectometer for the analysis of materials

- Solid Films and Superlattices - Soft Films and Multilayers - Materials Science Topics - Technical developments

Reflectometry
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
Health
 
Technique: Tomography
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
MoTo Monochromatic Tomography

- Neutron tomography with quantitative determination of the linear attenuation coefficient  - Neutron imaging using grating interferometry for spatially resolved ultra-small-angle scattering technique - Polarised neutron imaging to investigate magnetic domains

Tomography
Chemistry of materials
Reactions and catalysis
Energy
Environment
Life sciences
Technique: Micro tomography
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
PorTo cold neutron tomography  - Material science and Engineering - Energy science and battery studies - Additive manufacturing and metallurgy - Earth and planetary Sciences - Fluid flow and percolation - Porous media research - Food science Micro tomography
Radiography
Chemistry of materials
Reactions and catalysis
Energy
Environment
Technique: Radiography
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
PorTo cold neutron tomography  - Material science and Engineering - Energy science and battery studies - Additive manufacturing and metallurgy - Earth and planetary Sciences - Fluid flow and percolation - Porous media research - Food science Micro tomography
Radiography
Chemistry of materials
Reactions and catalysis
Energy
Environment

Nuclear & Particle Physics

Technique: NPP facility
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
FIPPS Gamma-ray spectrometer for thermal neutron induced reactions

- understanding of the fission process of heavy elements
- studies of the structures of neutron rich matter : how nuclear microscopic models work when nuclear parameters are changed
- level densities as input for astrophysical r-process calculations in non-equilibrium conditions, - search for doorway states for population of long-lived isomers with medical applications by photo-excitation,
- precise knowledge of fission yields and decays of fission products for ab-initio calculation of reactor neutrino spectra for sterile neutrino searches (STEREO),
- development of future nuclear reactors, fuel breeding schemes and nuclear waste transmutation.

NPP facility
Universe essentials
PF1B Polarised cold neutron beam facility

PF1B is dedicated to the particle and nuclear physics experiments. It provides the strongest polarised and unpolarised cold neutron beam in the world currently available for particle and nuclear physics. PF1B is the simplest but most flexible instrument at the ILL. Some of the experiments just use its neutron beam, other profit from its many devices needed to polarise, form, characterise, shield or remove the neutron beam.

NPP facility
Universe essentials
PN1 Fission product spectrometer (Lohengrin)

- Investigation of spectroscopic properties of exotic neutron-rich nuclei - Fission process investigation and industrial applications

NPP facility
Universe essentials
S18 Thermal neutron interferometer

- Neutron interferometry - Measurement of basic quantum physics laws - Measurement of neutron-nuclei scattering lengths - Quantum contextuality - Decoherence, dephasing and depolarisation experiments - Experiments with non-classical neutron states

NPP facility
Universe essentials
SuperSUN Super Ultracold Neutron Source

- address key questions of particle physics at the low-energy, high-precision frontier, complementary to experiments done at high-energy particle accelerators

NPP facility
Universe essentials

Spectroscopy

Technique: Time of flight spectrometry
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
PANTHER Thermal neutron time-of-flight spectrometer

- Crystal field excitations, spin-waves in magnetically ordered materials, magnetic excitations in quantum and/or frustrated magnets. - Lattice dynamics: phonon dispersion and phonon density of states. - Vibrational spectroscopy in the lower energy range. - Quantum rotations/translations of small molecules in confinements.

Time of flight spectrometry
Magnetism and quantum materials
Energy
 
IN5 Disk chopper time-of-flight spectrometer
  • Local and long-range diffusion in disordered systems (liquids, molecular crystals, amorphous solids -superionic glasses, orientational glasses, spin glasses
  • Polymers, hydrogen-metal systems, ionic conductors
  • Dynamics of ’soft matter’, including gels, proteins and biological membranes
  • Dynamics of quantum liquids
  • Rotational tunnelling in molecular crystals
  • Crystal field splitting
  • Spin dynamics in high-TC superconductors
  • Critical scattering phenomena in dense gases and solids
Time of flight spectrometry
Magnetism and quantum materials
Chemistry of materials
Energy
Environment
Health
SHARPER Cold neutron time-focussing TOF spectrometer

- Dynamics and relaxation properties in condensed matter exploiting both nuclear and magnetic scattering - Vibrational density of states of crystalline and amorphous solids - Dynamics of soft condensed matter such as polymers, proteins, biological membranes and gels - Local and long range diffusion of liquids, solutions and confined systems - Properties of quantum liquids, Fermi and non-Fermi systems - Phase transitions and quantum critical phenomena in polycrystals and single crystals - Spin dynamics in high-Tc superconductors - Properties of crystal field splittings

Time of flight spectrometry
Magnetism and quantum materials
Energy
Environment
Soft matter and polymers
Technique: 3 axes spectrometry
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
IN8 High-flux thermal 3-axis spectrometer
  • Magnetic excitations, lattice vibrations and excitations in liquids
  • Samples of small volume and weak inelastic response due to its high incident flux
3 axes spectrometry
Magnetism and quantum materials
IN20 Thermal 3-axis spectrometer with polarisation analysis
  • Magnetic fluctuations and quantum critical points
  • Spin waves and their coupling to lattice modes
  • Crystal field excitations
  • Spin canting in amorphous magnets
  • High resolution line-width studies (TASSE)
3 axes spectrometry
Magnetism and quantum materials
IN12 Cold 3-axis spectrometer

-low energy magnetic excitation spectrum
-lattice dynamics at low frequency
-critical scattering and phase transition phenomena
-weak static magnetic moments (10-2 μB) - Magnetic multilayers
-dynamics of the glass transition at low momentum transfer
-dynamics of amorphous materials at low momentum transfer
-dynamics of biological model membranes

3 axes spectrometry
Magnetism and quantum materials
IN22 Thermal 3-axis spectrometer with polarisation analysis
  • Magnetic and structural excitations on single crystal with neutrons of 5-100 meV incident energy
  • Longitudinal and spherical polarimetry of elastic or inelastic contributions (spherical polarimetry allowing measurements of inelastic nuclear-magnetic interference terms)
  • Polarized neutron inelastic scattering up to 12T magnetic field.
  • Magnetic phase diagram up to 40T with large pulsed magnetic field.
  • Life-time of magnetic and structural excitations with Neutron Resonance Spin Echo (NRSE) option
  • Experiments requiring a good resolution in wave vector and a low intrinsic neutron background
3 axes spectrometry
Magnetism and quantum materials
ThALES Cold Triple-Axes Spectrometer with polarisation option

- Very high cold neutron flux and good signal-to-noise - Excitations in magnetically ordered and disordered system - Correlated electron systems - Unconventional superconductors - Frustrated and low-dimensional systems - Spin liquid systems - Spin-lattice coupling, electro-magnon - Multiferroic materials - Low-lying lattice excitations, phason modes

3 axes spectrometry
Magnetism and quantum materials
Technique: Spectrometry backscattering
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
IN13 Thermal neutron backscattering spectrometer

IN13 is mainly devoted to life sciences, in particular to the study of the dynamical features of macromolecular compounds in the μeV energy region, but scientific applications can be also found in areas of materials science, solid-state physics, geophysics and chemistry.

- biology:  membranes and protein dynamics protein/membrane interactions extreme environmental conditions in biosciences and biotechnology in-vivo studies
- polymers and saccharides: saccharides and trehalose dynamics ; main chain and side chain motions in polymers ; conducting acid-doped polymers rotator phases
- confined media and inclusion compounds - Quasicrystals

Spectrometry backscattering
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
Health
IN16B High flux cold neutron backscattering HR spectrometer
  • An ideal application for backscattering spectroscopy is rotational tunneling of molecular rotors (e.g. -CH3,-NH4). New developments in this field have arisen from combining neutron spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. Tunneling in amorphous systems were first detected on IN16 as quasielastic broadening.
  • Hyperfine splitting of some elements (e.g. Co, Nd, Ho, V,...) is another example for inelastic spectroscopy in the micro-eV energy range.
  • relaxation processes in glasses, H-diffusion in metals or proton and ionic conductors as well as diffusion of molecules confined in host matrices. Sometimes this research is related to fundamental studies for applications as energy materials or catalysis.
  • study of local dynamics in complex materials like polymers, membranes and biological samples
Spectrometry backscattering
Magnetism and quantum materials
Energy
Environment
Life sciences
Health
Technique: Spin echo scattering
Nom Instrument type Application Technique Science domain
IN15 Spin-echo spectrometer with time-of-flight and focusing options

- dynamics in soft colloidal structures (e.g. liposomes, proteins, micelles, microemulsions)
- reptation in polymer melts
- alpha relaxation in glass-forming polymers
- diffusion of molecules in confined media
- magnetic excitations
- spin glass dynamics
- phonon linewidths

Spin echo scattering
Magnetism and quantum materials
Soft matter and polymers
Life sciences
Health
 
WASP High-intensity spin-echo spectrometer

- Study of the motion of biological functional groups - Diffusive dynamics in incoherent scatterers - Dynamics in molecular magnets - Dynamics of 1d and 2d confined molecules - Development of new models for systems near the glass transition - Small samples (magnetic or other)

Spin echo scattering
Energy
Environment
Life sciences
Health