Following the collaboration agreement signed at the beginning of the year between the ILL and the ESS for the supply of a TYREX station for the production of polarized Helium-3, a new agreement was signed on July 9 for the manufacturing by the ILL of the CSPEC detector, as well as for training of ESS staff. The ESS, European Spallation Source, is a neutron science facility currently under construction in Lund, Sweden, and is expected to have its first neutrons on 2025.
Identical in design to those of the ILL instruments IN5 and PANTHER, this Helium-3 detector will be made up of 12 multitube modules, plus a spare module, each comprising 32 tubes at a length of 3.5 m long. Each module will be tested and manufactured at the ILL, then filled with the detection gas at the ESS before installation on the instrument.
Helium-3, a rare and expensive gas whose availability on the market has been questioned for many years, is now available again. This makes helium-3 detectors (considered to be the most effective and efficient in terms of signal-to-noise ratio) accessible to neutron facilities. The ILL holds a leading position in this field and continues to support the other neutron centres in Europe, in particular the members of the LENS organisation (Ligue for European Neutron Sources).
Image: Neutron detector of the PANTHER instrument at the ILL.