A dynamic range upgrade for neutron backscattering spectroscopy

We report on an instrumental development of the cold neutron backscattering spectrometer IN10 at the Institut Laue-Langevin which has led to a significant increase in its dynamic range. Thermal expansion of a variety of neutron monochromator crystals is used instead of a mechanical oscillation of the monochromator, yielding an increase in the energy transfer range by nearly two orders of magnitude in an elastic wave vector transfer range of 0.07 ≤ Q ( A ̊^-) ≤ 2.0. Using this new configuration, first inelastic measurements have been performed using the (200) reflections from KCl and NaCl monochromators with crystal temperatures between 80 K and 700 K. The thermal expansion of these crystals in this temperature range gives rise to energy transfer ranges (neutron energy gain) of -16 < h {combining short stroke overlay}ω (μeV) < +83 for KCl and -530 < h {combining short stroke overlay}ω (μeV) < -420 for NaCl with energy resolution (FWHM) of around 0.6 and 1.4 μeV for KCl and NaCl respectively. These figures represent the highest energy resolution currently available at these energy and wave vector transfers.