The performance of reflectometers at continuous wave and pulsed-neutron sources
To quantify gains from time-of-flight (TOF) methods, identical reflectometers viewing a continuous wave (CW) neutron source and a variety of pulsed-neutron sources were simulated using a Monte Carlo technique. Reflectivity profiles obtained for a simple thin-film, reflecting,sample were nearly identical in all simulations, and models fitted to the simulated data yielded parameters (film thickness, surface roughness, and scattering length density) that were equally accurate and precise in all cases. The simulations confirm the power of the TOF method and demonstrate that the performance of pulsed sources for reflectometry does not scale simply as the inverse duty factor of the source. In the case of long-pulse sources, the simulations suggest that pulse tails have little effect on results obtained from specular reflectometry and that maximum brightness of the neutron source should be the primary design criterion.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 204705
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-95-3905; CONF-9510212-10; ON: DE96003156; TRN: 96:008527
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICANS-XIII: 13. international collaboration on advanced neutron sources, Villigen (Switzerland), 11-14 Oct 1995; Other Information: PBD: [1995]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
A neutron reflectometer for LANSCE
Highlights from the magnetism reflectometer at the SNS