Proposal for a new spectrometer at ESS: Njord and Remora

Abstract

Many of the most interesting scientific subjects are also the hardest to study with neutrons. Metal-organic frameworks, organic superconductors, quantum magnets, pressure-tuned materials, are systems where the relevant signals are weak, the samples are tiny, or the experiments need extreme sample environments such as pressure cells and high-field cryomagnets. Existing instruments often run into practical limits before the science is exhausted. For some questions the samples are simply too small; for others, the signal is buried in background or the required measurement time becomes prohibitive. This is both a scientific opportunity and a challenge for the European neutron scattering community. We present Njord and Remora as a paired instrument concept for the European Spallation Source (ESS). The proposal focuses on two linked problems: important science cases are being limited by neutron flux and sample geometry, and the community also needs more beamtime. Njord addresses the first by pushing the available brightness into a tightly focused beam, while Remora uses the remaining spectral window to add a complementary spectrometer on the same beamport.