The APEX collaboration aims to magnetically confine electron-positron pair plasma and diagnose the plasma with FPGA-processing of annihilation detections from an array of 48 Bismuth-Germanate (BGO) scintillators. Direct annihilation of pairs and the annihilation of positronium (Ps), formed through radiative and three-body recombination produce a volumetric source of gammas. Back-to-back...
Predicting helium retention in tungsten is of relevance for future nuclear fusion reactors as it influences tritium uptake and transport, two processes which are critical factors in achieving tritium self-sufficiency. While the macroscopic effects of helium agglomeration in tungsten are known it is still an open topic of discussion what the underlying processes on a microscopic scale are. Our...
In order to provide users of the neutron scattering instruments at the MLZ with the appropriate partially or fully deuterated materials the JCNS has started a deuteration service, primarily from our core competence areas of polymers and ethoxylation.
This year we have held our first call for synthesis proposals. During the MLZ user meeting we wish to present some of the results of this call...
Metal oxide interfaces are suitable functional materials for various energy applications. For example, TiO2 can act not only as an anode material in new generation photovoltaic and energy storage technol-ogies, but also in the photocatalytic production of hydrogen. For such applications, a controlled mor-phology on distinct length scales is particularly important to fulfill optimal performance...
Co-nonsolvency occurs if a mixture of two good solvents causes the collapse or demixing of polymers into a polymer-rich and solvent-rich phase in a certain range of compositions of these two solvents. The nonionic thermo-responsive polymer, poly(N-isopropylmethacrylamide) (PNIPMAM), which features a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in aqueous solution, has been widely used to...
KWS-3 is a very small angle neutron scattering diffractometer operated by JCNS at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Garching, Germany. The principle of this instrument is one-to-one imaging of an entrance aperture onto a 2D position sensitive detector by neutron reflection from a double-focusing toroidal mirror. In current state, KWS-3 is covering Q-range between 3·10-5 and 2·10-2 Å-1 and...
The investigation of thin films with Grazing Incidence Small Angle Neutron Scattering (GISANS) has been established as an advanced characterization method in the last years. Lateral structures from the nanometer to the micrometer range are accessible and different sample environments were developed for GISANS experiments under controlled environmental conditions. However, so far the access to...
Owing to low density (3.8-4.0g/cm3), high specific strength and stiffness, excellent creep resistance, and good corrosion resistance, the β-solidifying TNM alloys with properly aligned (α2+γ) lamellar structure have been considered as excellent candidates for modern turbine blades. Recently, it has been evidenced that when the γ lamellae are oriented to the load direction the mechanical...
A prominent strategy to increase the capacity of Lithium Ion Batteries is the use of silicon as anode material. However, the volumetric increase of silicon upon lithiation regularly results in a low cycling stability of the material. Our strategy is based on a partial lithiation of silicon to ~30%, which leads to a significant gain in cycling stability while maintaining a high capacity. The...
The new customized SAXS/WAXS instrument from XENOCS have be installed in the JCNS X-ray laboratory from the end of 2021. As a young member of our small angle scattering instrument by using x ray as beam, the new instrument is equipped with a high flux metal-jet source and a moveable Eiger 2R4M SAXS detector. With additional 4-axis motorized WAXS detector and Bonse-Hart USAXS the scattering...
The cold neutron beam at MLZ offers unique conditions for nuclear analytical chemistry. The analytical facility accommodates several instruments being under development or recently upgraded.
The focusing guide has been replaced with a truly-curved elliptical guide ensuring a more homogeneous beam with a smaller divergence and with coinciding focal points, which serves all instrumental setups...
Ni-based superalloys are essential for applications in demanding environments, such as jet engines or the heavily stressed rotating discs in the hot sections of modern gas turbines. Such environments typically challenge the material with a combination of high temperatures, high tensile loads, and oxidizing atmospheres. In this study, the polycrystalline Ni-based superalloy VDM 780® Alloy 780...
Natural protein fibers, silks, are expected as sustainable structural materials because of their excellent mechanical properties, especially the high-toughness nature with a good balance of strength and extensibility. However, the structural origin of the high-toughness of silks has not been well understood. So far, we have studied the hierarchical structure of many kinds of silks on the basis...
Powder diffraction at neutron sources stands in the forefront of materials research and powder diffractometers are standard working horses at large scale facilities serving a large part of neutron community with data and producing the vast of scientific output. Many years ago the analysis of instrumental suite at FRM II reactor source clearly identified a demand for high-throughput...
A Quenching and Deformation Dilatometer (TA instruments DIL 805A/D/T) operates at the MLZ for performing in-situ neutron diffraction (phase, texture, stress/strain) at STRESS-SPEC and small-angle neutron scattering (nanostructure) at SANS-1. Imaging applications are under preparation at ANTARES. With this setup, the evolution of the sample length during heating or quenching can be accurately...
Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) with a wide range of applications have emerged as the most promising candidate for electrochemical energy storage due to its higher specific energies, volumetric energy densities and power densities. However, lithium dendrite will grow and the Coulombic efficiency (CE) will decrease with Li plating and stripping. During past decades, more and more state-of-art...
Over the past few years, hybrid perovskite materials have attracted tremendous interest due to its excellent photovoltaic properties in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) resulting in record power conversion efficiencies. The residual lead iodide is easy to form during the fabrication of perovskite layers, especially in case of the two-step deposition method. In addition, residual lead iodide has...
Neutron Depth Profiling (NDP) is a non-destructive, element-specific, high-resolution nuclear analytical technique, which is often used to probe concentration profiles of lithium, boron, nitrogen, helium and several other light elements in different host materials. The N4DP instrument is located at the Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) beam line of Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ),...
In this presentation, we will give an overview of the current status of the powder diffractometer SPODI [1], its performance in user service together with future perspectives. In this respect, the impact of the foreseen new SR8 shielding and neutron optics setup on instrumental resolution and flux characteristics will be addressed as well as current developments in sample environment. In...
In order to provide our users the possibility to complete their neutron scattering data with real space images we will present the Electron Microscopy possibilities at MLZ consisting of a Cryogenic transmission electron microscope Cryo-TEM (JCNS) and an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope ESEM (JCNS & Hereon).
TEM yield real space images of soft matter systems, particularly in...
Recently, organic solar cells have received increasing attention due to superior flexibility and being light weight. Among the structures of the active layer, planar and bulk heterojunction structures are commonly adopted, which have their individual intrinsic shortcomings. The new developed pseudo-bilayer structure can perfectly combine their strengths and circumvent their drawbacks....
The neutron spin echo spectrometer RESEDA (Resonance Spin Echo for Diverse Applications) is dedicated to the exploration of slow dynamics and fluctuations in hard and soft condensed matter systems. RESEDA is located at the end position of NL5-S in the Neutron Guide Hall West. Following a major revision and upgrade, RESEDA now permits longitudinal NRSE (LNRSE) spectroscopy as well as...
KOMPASS is a polarized cold-neutron three axes spectrometer (TAS) currently undergoing its final construction phase at the MLZ in Garching. The instrument is designed to exclusively work with polarized neutrons and optimized for zero-field spherical neutron polarization analysis for measuring all elements of the polarization matrix. In contrast to other TASs, KOMPASS is equipped with a unique...
We propose a Modulation of intensity with zero effort (MIEZE) set-up for high-resolution neutron spectroscopy at momentum transfers up to 3Å$^{-1}$,energy transfers up to\,$~$20\,meV, and an energy resolution in the $\mu$eV-range using both thermal and cold neutrons. MIEZE has two prominent advantages compared to classical neutron spin-echo. The first one is the possibility to investigate...
Located at the SR10 at the FRM II, NECTAR is a versatile instrument and designed for the non-destructive inspection of various objects by means of fission neutron radiography and tomography. Compared to the Z-dependency of X-ray and gamma imaging, fission neutrons have the strong advantage of often providing similar contrast for heavy and light materials. Only few facilities around the world...
TRISP is currently transferred to the "Neutron Guide Hall East". A new ballistic neutron guide with elliptic and parabolic sections helps to avoid losses of the neutron flux, although the distance from the reactor increases from 10m to 30m. The ballistic guide also includes a cavity polarizer (length 3.6m) with a good polarization efficiency of ~90% in the wavelength band 1-4 Angström. We will...
Developing clean energy lies in the heart of sustainable development of human society. Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) originating from Maxwell’s displacement current is a new type of energy harvester for harnessing ambient mechanical energy based on the coupling effect of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction. Compared with other counterparts, owing to the light-weight,...
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are among the most promising photovoltaic technologies and reached a certified 25.6% efficiency owing to their tuneable bandgap, high charge carrier mobility, long diffusion length. The long-term operational stability of PSCs, however, has been not investigated in depth. Herein, we probe the structure changes with grazing-incidence small-angle x-ray scattering...
Research into quantum dots (QDs) of metal halide perovskites has become increasingly popular due to their stability and tunable optoelectronic properties. Their controllable surface chemistry and simple preparation make them a promising alternative to bulk perovskite solar cells. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of $\text{Cs}_{x}\text{FA}_{1-x}\text{PbI}_3$ QD solar cells (QDSCs) has been...
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are very promising in contributing in the renewable energy mix of the future. They have high power conversion efficiencies and are made of low-cost materials. Especially in combination with slot-die coating as promising thin-film deposition technique for organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials, they offer the chance for a fast and cheap roll-to-roll solar ...
The 3He group has developed in-situ polarizers for many JCNS instruments including MARIA, TOPAS, KWS1, POLI, and KWS2 and will provide another two polarizers for the ESS for DREAM and TREX. We develop all 3He cells and magnetic systems in house, as well as the laser sources for the FRM2-based devices. We have also work towards wide angle analysis with C-shaped analyzer cell. The status and...
Metal alloys, such as LiAl, are gaining more interest as anode materials for Li ion batteries because they exhibit a high theoretical capacity with 993 mAh/g while being inexpensive. During lithiation, aluminium begins to form a solid solution with Li, the so called alpha-LiAl phase. Once the solubility limit is reached upon lithiation, the alpha-LiAl undergoes a phase transition to the...
Cu-Ti alloys feature a large, undercooled liquid region and a high glass-forming ability (GFA) and thus, provide the possibility to obtain two component bulk metallic glasses (BMGs). Such behavior is unusual and could be due to the special properties of the Cu-Ti system: In the melt, it shows a positive excess volume, whereas it still features a negative enthalpy of mixing.
Even though, the...
Skyrmions are topologically non-trivial spin textures that exhibit an exceptionally efficient coupling to spin currents, notably spin-polarized charge currents and magnon currents as observed in MnSi, FeGe, and Cu2OSeO3 [1, 2, 3]. This raises the question for the microscopic mechanisms that control the pinning of the skyrmion lattice, and how they depend on the topology, electronic structure,...
PbS colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) have generated great interests in various optoelectronic devices including solar cells, photodetectors and infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs), due to their size-tunable bandgap, low-temperature and solution processability. To date, defects and charge carrier transport in CQD solids and surface passivation of one single QD remain major challenges for the...
The performance of polymer solar cells (PSC) underwent a great development due to material design and device engineering, while the poor stability of PSCs and the use of toxic solvents during device fabrication are the most two big challenges nowadays hindering a large scale application. Here, we select a green-solvent based material system PBDB-TF-T1:BTP-4F-12 as our research model, and...
Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy is a powerful tool in a wide range of material science. To investigate inhomogeneous defect distributions, e.g. close to fatigue cracks or dispersive alloy, with PALS a monochromatic pulsed positron beam of variable energy with a diameter in the range of 1 µm and a pulse width of 150 ps FWHM is needed.
To this aim the Scanning Positron Microscope...
At the cold triple axis instrument PANDA, a virtual twin based on Monte-Carlo ray-tracing simulations is used for educational purposes in student practical, training of newly arrived staff and experiment planning for users. The underlying McStas simulation is connected to the NICOS instrument control software, giving the virtual twin the look and feel of the real instrument. Also, instrumental...
Lithium has a high specific capacity of 3860 mAh g−1 and a low electrochemical potential (-3.04 V), promising a high energy density lithium metal battery (LMB). However, the growth of lithium dendrites during charging and discharging would penetrate the separators in LMBs, which leads to short circuit. To inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites, we focus on optimizing the SEI layer through...
Getting beamtime at MLZ and performing experiments for the first time is an exhilarating experience. For some new users, however, data analysis of acquired data is quite challenging. To avoid situations where valuable data is left untreated due to lack of experience and adequate support, MLZ creates a new group for user support, which will work in close cooperation with the instrument...
Research with neutrons, with its interdisciplinary approach, is indispensable for modern science. Taking into consideration tremendous changes in the European neutron landscape and assuming responsibility for sustainability, the neutron community is nowadays facing an important task to ensure long-term perspectives, that essentially depend on its ability to create a new generation of...
Stimuli responsive polymers have gained much attention due to their unique properties. If polymer thin films exhibit a reversible volume change upon exposure to external stimuli such as temperature, pH, or solvents, they become promising candidates for applications such as nanoswitches or sensors. Polymers like poly(N-isopropyl methacrylamide) (PNIPMAM), which are sensitive to two stimuli can...
Austempered ductile iron (ADI) has undergone a special heat treatment to enhance mechanical properties. This heat treatment process consists of austenitization, quenching to a temperature between 250°C and 450°C and isothermal austempering, after which the microstructure consists of acicular ferrite and high carbon enriched retained austenite.
The high carbon enriched retained austenite can...
Thermoresponsive copolymers are nowadays useful materials for drug delivery [1]. Incorporating a light sensitive functionality as a second non-invasive stimulus, their lower critical transition temperature (LCST) can be modulated at will, achieving a switching of the conformation and the water solubility by a change of temperature or by irradiation with light. Here, we investigate the effect...
SAPHiR, the Six Anvil Press for High Pressure Radiography and Diffraction, belongs to a suite of new instruments at the FRM II neutron source in Garching. The instrument will provide high pressure and temperature environments for in situ neutron measurements of powder samples, fluids, and melts. The pressure is generated by a cubic multi-anvil press, currently capable of reaching 15 GPa, with...
Mushroom is a concept of an indirect neutron spectrometer with a secondary spectrometer based on a super flat-cone analyser made of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite with an array of position-sensitive detectors (PSD) below it. This combination of the analyser and PSD gives the complete information of the outgoing wave vectors from each detected point on the PSDs. The idea has been first...
Polydiacetylenes (PDAs) are color-responsive polymers to various stimuli. The development of PDAs as anionic surfactant sensors by structural modification involved complicated and costly processes. In this study, we introduce a facile approach for preparing polydiacetylene/zinc (II) ion/zinc oxide (PDA/Zn2+/ZnO) nanocomposites utilized for anionic surfactant detection. Cationic surfactant,...
Self-assembled morphologies of thin films of a pentablock terpolymer with a symmetric architecture of two types of pH-responsive midblocks and short hydrophobic end blocks are investigated. Different degrees of charge, installed for the two pH-responsive blocks by varying the pH-value of the aqueous solution used for spin-coating, strongly define the film formation behaviour [1]. However, with...
Organic semiconductors have attracted intense attention due to their potential use in mechanically flexible, lightweight, and inexpensive electronic devices. Especially, poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS) is the most studied conducting polymer system due to its intrinsically high electrical conductivity, low thermal conductivity, and high mechanical...
Neutron Activation Analysis is still one of the most sensitive trace-element analytical method. FRM II reactor offers unique possibilities for NAA with its high-flux highly thermalized neutron field. The method has been made available in the user system. The reactor is equipped with several irradiation facilities: rabbits, capsule irradiation system and the so-called "fishing line" position...
Thermoelectric (TE) generators are considered a promising technique for heat waste recovery as they enable a direct conversion of a temperature gradient into electrical power. Especially polymer based organic thermoelectric materials, like the blend poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), are very advantageous, as these materials allow a large scale, low-cost...
In the field of gas turbines, the goal of high-temperature alloy development is to reach higher service temperatures including lowering the consumption of the fuel, making the energy production/transformation more efficient and more economical. Our efforts in this area was to develop a new cobalt rhenium (CoRe) base superalloy. Various techniques such as neutron, electron and X-ray based...
STRESS-SPEC was one of the first neutron diffractometers at which industrial robots for sample handling and positioning were used. However, industrial robots are still limited in their use due to insufficient absolute positioning accuracies of up to ± 0.5 mm in some cases. Usually, an absolute positioning accuracy of 10% of the smallest gauge volume size – which in case of modern neutron...
Our goal is to fabricate colloidal photonic layers exploiting structural colors in cellulosic materials. The colloidal distribution is a result of the self-assembly of colloidal particles during the drying process after spraying deposition. Therefore, the aim of our experiments is to follow the colloidal layer development during spray coating of colloidal inks used for lay-er formation on...
The PERC facility is currently under construction at the FRM II. It aims to measure the beta spectrum of neutron decay more precisely than its predecessors PERKEO II and PERKEO III, enabling the determination of several correlation coefficients in neutron decay with an improved precision by one order of magnitude. Of particular interest is the so-called beta asymmetry parameter A. PERC aims to...
Ordered porous gold/titanium dioxide (Au/TiO2) hybrid nanostructured films are specifically interesting in large-scale applications using localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In this work, we investigate the optical response of sputter-deposited Au/TiO2 nanohybrid thin films with a focus on the plasmonic response and application as...
All-solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLBs) have received extensive attention as one of the most promising power sources for flexible and wearable electronics, mainly because of their high flexibility, high energy density and reliable safety. However, the practical application of ASSLBs has been hindered by the poor interfacial stability and inferior ionic conductivity. Therefore, the...
With high energy density, long lifespan, and environmental friendliness, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) represent one of the most attractive energy storage devices and are playing increasing roles in modern society. This technology is already present in the portable electronics markets, electric vehicles, and small-scale energy storage systems. For higher performances, changing the anode...
Lithium secondary batteries (LSBs) have witnessed explosive growth in the last decade. Traditional Li-ion batteries, on the other hand, are severely constrained in high-temperature applications due to the low thermal stability of the electrolyte/electrode interface and electrolyte decompositions in the cell. Herein, we demonstrate a new electrolyte that achieves an excellent stable long-term...
Additive Manufacturing (AM) has become a viable manufacturing technique, because of its remarkable ability to manufacture parts with intricate shapes and superior mechanical properties. Wire laser additive manufacturing (WLAM) is a kind of Direct Energy Deposition (DED) technology where a wire is fed through a nozzle and deposited onto a substrate and melted by focussing one or more laser...
The crystallization behavior of metal halide perovskite thin films has a profound influence on the resulting defect densities, charge carrier properties and photovoltaic performance characteristics. Herein, we introduce a pyrrolidinium-based ionic compound (Pyr14BF4) into the perovskite to investigate the impact of ionic liquids on the crystal growth of perovskite films. Using time-resolved...
The sodium superionic conductor materials, also known as NASICON, have been a widely studied class of solid electrolytes for Na-ion based all-solid-state batteries due to their high conductivity and facile synthesis conditions. The aim of this work is to clarify the reason for extremely high conductivity exhibited by some compositions, specifically by Na1+xZr2SixP3-xO12 (0 ≤ x ≤ 3), and to...
The freedom in complexity of AM metal parts allows very stiff and extreme light designs made of AlSi11Mg0.5 alloy and are entering serial production in automotive industry amongst others. Nevertheless, the production process of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is prone to the formation of residual stresses (RS). Furthermore, the parts may have distortions and must undergo a subsequent heat...
We review the impact of new and highly precise neutron beta decay data with a focus on recent results from neutron lifetime, beta asymmetry, and electron-neutrino correlation experiments. From these results, we extract weak interaction parameters with unprecedented precision. This is enabled also by progress in effective field theory and lattice quantum chromodynamics. Limits on New Physics...
The bright low-energy positron beam provided by the neutron induced positron source in Munich (NEPOMUC) at FRM II is used in a large variety of experiments in materials science, condensed matter and surface physics as well as in fundamental research, e.g., for the creation of a positron-electron pair plasma. Within this contribution, an overview of the current status and developments of the...
The author will present the actual status of the work at the MEPHISTO beamline and the Helium cryoplant system.
The integration of the nanoparticles with proteins has a prime interest in the field of nanobiotechnology where these complexes are aimed to be utilized in different applications such as targeted drug delivery, biosensing, etc. [1]. The protein adsorption on nanoparticles is governed by several interactions such as hydrogen bonding, electrostatic complexion, hydrophobic attraction, etc....
An innovative 100KN testing machine for, tensile, compression, and fatigue testing of industrially relevant high-temperature alloys has been developed and optimized for in-situ microstructural characterization of high-temperature alloys under mechanical and thermal loading. Moreover, this machine can be used as a new sample environment for in-situ experiments at FRM II, e.g., at the...
REFSANS is the horizontal TOF reflectometer at the MLZ, designed to enable reflectometry and GISANS studies of any interface, as well as to give simultaneous access to a range of Qz values, which is especially useful to study air-liquid interfaces or kinetic phenomena.
Wavelength resolution may be tuned from 0.2 % up to 10%. The optics comprises neutron guide elements with different channels...
In this contribution, we present the new devices of the Physics Lab, which is open for all MLZ users. It comprises of a magnitude of different preparation and analytical tools, which are intended to support users for upcoming neutron scattering experiments. For analytical purposes, the lab offers the ability to use a digital microscope, x-ray reflectometer, x-ray residual stress...
The thermal triple-axis-spectrometer PUMA at the neutron research reactor FRM-II (MLZ) is one of the most robust, and yet extremely flexible instruments worldwide of its kind. In addition to the “normal triple axis” setup, PUMA delivers a good number of unique features to meet the ever-growing demands of the scientific community worldwide. Multiplexing, using the multi-analyzer and...
The cold triple-axis spectrometer (TAS) FLEXX at HZB is a well-designed and upgraded instrument [1-4]. There is a strong wish that this excellent instrument should be preserved for the community after the shutdown of the HZB neutron source. One attractive gap in the present instrumentation suite of MLZ, is the Larmor-diffraction technique (LD) and, as a natural extension, cold neutron resonant...
MLZ successfully operates the two neutron imaging beam lines NECTAR and ANTARES. NECTAR provides fast fission neutrons, thermal neutrons and gammas, which can be combined for multi-modal characterization of larger samples with spatial resolution down to ~100 µm. ANTARES offers a spectrum with a thermal maximum, extended towards cold neutrons, providing higher sensitivity and spatial...
TOFTOF is a direct geometry disc-chopper time-of-flight spectrometer. A cascade of seven fast rotating disc choppers is used to prepare a monochromatic pulsed beam which is focussed onto the sample by a converging super-mirror section. The scattered neutrons are detected by 1000 3He detector tubes with a time resolution up to 50 ns. The detectors are mounted at a distance of 4 m and cover 12...
Polarized neutron diffraction is a powerful tool for studying condensed matter physics and to probe the spin and orbital properties of unpaired electrons. POLI is a polarized neutron single crystal diffractometer built on the hot neutron source at MLZ. Currently three standard setups are implemented on POLI: 1) zero-field spherical neutron polarimetry using CRYOPAD; 2) polarized neutron...
In order to improve the microstructure and mechanical properties of the newly developed Ni-base superalloy VDM® Alloy 780 it is necessary to understand the $\gamma$’ hardening phase precipitation process. Here the precipitation process was studied in-situ by time-of-flight (TOF) neutron diffraction (ND) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments at high temperature, which allowed us...
The MIEZE (Modulated IntEnsity with Zero Effort) resonant spin-echo technique at the RESEDA instrument at FRM II has its optimum resolution at small scattering angles, i.e. SANS type geometries. Recent upgrades (MIASANS) have further increased the resolution in the small angle regime. Going forward, there is the possibility [1] to extend the optimum MIEZE resolution to wide angles by...
Thermal neutron three axes spectrometer PUMA is characterized by a very high neutron flux as a result of the efficient use of focusing techniques. An innovative option of the spectrometer is the multianalyzer/detector system, which allows a unique and flexible type of multiplexing. Using this option, a scattering angle range of 16° can be measured simultaneously and flexible Q-ω paths can be...
The high-intensity reflectometer MARIA of JCNS, is installed in the neutron guide hall of the FRM-II reactor and is using a velocity selector (4.5Å<λ<40Å) with a resolution of 10%. By using Fermi-Chopper the wavelength resolution can be increased to 1% or 3%. The beam is polarized by a double-reflecting super mirror (4.5Å<λ<12Å) and in the vertical direction the elliptically focusing neutron...
KWS-2 is a classical small angle neutron diffractometer where the pinhole mode with different neutron-wavelengths and detector distances can be combined with focusing mode with MgF2 lenses to reach a wide Q-range between 2x10-4 and 1 Å-1. Upgrades in the detection system and sample environment are currently in progress. A wide-angle detection option is currently in test and optimization and...
The combination of in-situ Raman and neutron spectroscopy is very powerful in order to investigate the molecular dynamics and chemical reactions inside a sampleat the same time. For this purpose we will introduce our new sample environments to combine quasi elastic (QENS) and inelastic (INS) neutron spectroscopy with Raman spectroscopy. To measure Raman and neutrons at the same time it is...
As the demand for better and FAIR handling of generated data increase, we are implementing a new user portal that will provide:
- Data catalog with metadata about the collect datasets
- Data evaluation platform
- New Single-sign-on system
The cold neutron imaging beam line ANTARES at FRM II is a state of the art facility, which combines excellent beam properties with highly flexible experimental conditions. User experiments can be performed with complex sample environment like croystats, furnaces or tensile rigs.
In this poster, we give an overview of the beam line layout and possible options of the beam line. Moreover, we...
We present the features of the instrument SANS-1 at MLZ, a joint TUM and Hereon project [1]. SANS-1 features two velocity selectors and a TISANE chopper, efficiently allowing to tune flux, resolution, duty cycle and frame overlap, including time resolved measurements with repetition rates up to 10 kHz.
A second key feature is the large accessible Q-range facilitated by the sideways movement...
The RESEDA (Resonant Spin-Echo for Diverse Applications) instrument has been optimized for neutron scattering measurements of quasi-elastic and inelastic processes over a wide parameter range. One spectrometer arm of RESEDA is configured for the MIEZE (Modulation of Intensity with Zero Effort) technique, where the measured signal is an oscillation in neutron intensity over time prepared by two...
The Small-K Advanced DIffractometer (SKADI) is a joint in-kind project of French and German partners to deliver a SANS instrument to the ESS. [1,2] This contribution details the current construction status of SKADI. Further practical requirements on components such as the sample area will also be considered. SKADI is designed to deliver
-Flexibility (sample area is approx. 3x3 m$^2$, and...
Neutron-based analytical techniques (such as prompt gamma activation analysis and neutron activation analysis) are preferred in the non-destructive bulk analysis of archaeological objects, modern alloys with protective layer, and in case of materials containing elements that are insoluble for destructive quantitative analysis. Both nuclear analytical techniques are primary methods of...
The next generation asymmetric horizontal SANS magnet (NHSM) project will provide a unique toolset to study the quantum phenomena in nanostructures and correlated electron systems [1]. This project includes the idea, design and optimization, of a high-performance compensated asymmetric horizontal magnet for small angle neutron scattering (SANS), reflectometry (REFSANS), and the resonance spin...
The MIEZE method, a sub-type of the neutron spin echo (NSE) technique, circumvents the coupling of neutron beam phase space and resolution, by using oscillating neutron intensity as an internal clock to record minuscule changes to the energy of a scattered neutron. As a result MIEZE achieves an energy resolution down to the ns range with a bandwidth of ∆λ/λ ≈ 10 %.
This concept has been...
[NICOS][1] is a network-based control system written for neutron scattering instruments, originally at the MLZ. Its main goals are flexibility, ease of use and maintenance, and reusability. NICOS allows remote control of scientific instruments via both interactive interfaces (GUI, command line) and a scripting system.
[eWorkbench][2] is a generic platform for managing research data and...
The PERC facility is currently under construction at the FRM II in Garching, Germany. It will serve as an intense and clean source of electrons and protons from neutron beta decay for precision studies. It aims to improve the measurements of the properties of weak interaction by one order of magnitude and to search for new physics via new effective couplings.
PERC's central component is a 12...
Dioctadecyldimethylammonium bromide (DODAB), show rich phase behavior [1]. We have studied the effects of Non-steroidal inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), aspirin and indomethacin, on the phase behavior and the dynamics of DODAB lipid bilayer using quasielastic neutron scattering technique (QENS). Elastic window scan showed that aspirin and indomethacin shifts coagel to fluid phase transition at...
The fusion of viral and host cell membranes is a pivotal step in the infection and life cycle of any virus. The coronaviridae present a taxonomic family with a complex and highly diverse fusion behavior across different species and viral host environments. Despite the massive global research interest in SARS-CoV-2 many aspects of the fusion process are still only rudimentarily understood....
Metal matrix composite (MMC) coatings can improve surface wear resistance significantly. However, both macro and micro residual stresses exist in the MMC coatings, causing detrimental effects such as reducing service life. Based on neutron diffraction, we determined the residual stresses in the spherical fused tungsten carbide (sFTC) reinforced Cu matrix composite surface deposits after laser...
A low-temperature routine to realize inorganic hole-blocking layers (HBLs) is important for the commercialization of perovskite solar cells. Fabricating HBLs at low temperature is energy-saving and compatible with flexible substrates. In this work, titania thin films are synthesized at low temperature with the sol-gel method templated by a diblock copolymer. Tailoring titania film morphology...
Photocatalysis of water is becoming one of the pillars of green approaches to obtain sustainable energy supply. The water splitting reaction is an easy way to implement the sun to produce hydrogen-based energy. Pt loaded graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) has been found as a promising candidate for the H2 evolution reaction under visible light. It showed a high H2 evolution efficiency in aqueous...
Gold deposition via high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) allows to coat thin metal layers on heat sensitive materials such as polymers allowing for increased adhesion and density. HiPIMS allows deposition at a lower total deposited thermal energy in comparison to conventional magnetron sputtering, but this energy is delivered in a very short pulse exhibiting very high power and...
In recent decades, Au nanoparticles (NPs) have been utilized in a wide range of sensor applications, such as photodetection, bio-detection, and thermal-detection, because of their unique optical and chemical properties. Among the optical sensors, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has attracted extensive attention, being used in the identification of unknown substances in analytical...
Neutron single crystal diffraction provides an experimental method for the direct location of hydrogen and deuterium atoms in biological macromolecules. At the FRM II neutron source the neutron single crystal diffractometer BIODIFF, a joint project of the Forschungszentrum Jülich and the FRM II, is dedicated to the structure determination of enzymes. Typical scientific questions address the...
Single crystal neutron diffraction experiments on protein crystals often require beamtimes of several days in order to measure a complete data set which leads to meaningful results on atom positions and occupancies. In case of room temperature measurements, the sample under investigation might change during that time. If one wants to study a radical intermediate state of the protein, often...
The neutron powder diffractometer SPODI is one of the most active instruments at the research neutron source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz. However, the demands of the user community far exceed the available beam time. Therefore, the thermal beamport SR8 will be optimized to allow the simultaneous operation of the three powder diffractometers SPODI, FIREPOD and ERWIN. Due to the unique characteristics...
The electrochemical efficiency of Li-ion batteries is largely determined by the diffusivity of Li ions and the transport of electrons between electrode materials in the cell. In nickel-containing cathode materials the mixed Li\Ni occupations often occurs, leading to structural disorder, blocking of the 2D diffusion pathways of Li$^{+}$ by Ni$^{2+}$, as well as the reduction of the capacity and...
Mesoporous films consisting of zinc titanate have high potential applications in photocatalysis, solar cells, and sensors due to tailoring their semiconductive properties. In the present work, we investigate the morphologies of mesoporous zinc titanate films obtained by changing the ratio of two inorganic precursors after calcining hybrid films consisting of organic-inorganic materials. The...
HEiDi is one of only two single crystal diffractometers (SCD) using hot unpolarized neutrons worldwide. Many scientific topics on compounds in battery or information technology with light and/or highly absorbing elements profit from comprehensive structure analysis up to high Q as well as experiments using absorbing sample environments like pressure cells. In order to maximize the large...
