Evaluation of a method for time-of-flight, wavelength and distance calibration for neutron scattering instruments by means of a mini-chopper and standard neutron monitors

Abstract

Accurate conversion of neutron time-of-flight (TOF) to wavelength, and its uncertainty, is of fundamental importance to neutron scattering measurements. Especially in cases where instruments are highly configurable, the determination of the absolute wavelength after any change must always be performed. Inspired by the manner with which neutron spectrometers determine the absolute wavelength, we evaluate for the first time, in the author's knowledge, a commonly used method for converting TOF to neutron wavelength, the distance of a monitor from the source of neutrons and we analytically calculate the uncertainty contributions that limit the precision of the conversion. The method was evaluated at the V20 test beamline at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB), emulating the ESS source with a pulse of 2.86 ms length and 14 Hz repetition rate, by using a mini-chopper operated at 140 Hz, beam monitors (BMs) and data acquisition infrastructure. The mini-chopper created well-defined neutron pulses and the BM was placed at two positions, enabling the average wavelength of each of the pulses created to be determined. The used experimental setup resulted in absolute wavelength determination at the monitor positions with a $\delta \lambda_{mean} / \lambda_{mean}$ of $\sim$1.8% for $\lambda >4$ \r{A}. With a modest increase of the distance between the reference monitor positions a $\delta \lambda_{mean} / \lambda_{mean}$ of below 0.5% can be achieved. Further improvements are possible by using a thinner monitor, smaller chopper disc openings and a higher rotational speed chopper. The method requires only two neutron measurements and doesn't necessitate the use of crystals or complex fitting, and could constitute a suitable addition to imaging, diffraction, reflectometers and small angle neutron scattering instruments, at spallation sources, that do not normally utilise fast choppers.