Small-angle scattering and dark-field imaging for validation of a new neutron far-field interferometer
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The continued advancement of complex materials often requires a deeper understanding of the structure–function relationship across many length scales, which quickly becomes an arduous task when multiple measurements are required to characterize hierarchical and inherently heterogeneous materials. Therefore, there are benefits in the simultaneous characterization of multiple length scales. At the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a new neutron far-field interferometer is under development that aims to enable a multi-scale measurement combining the best of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and neutron imaging and tomography. Spatially resolved structural information on the same length scales as SANS (0.001–1 µm) and ultra-small-angle neutron scattering (USANS, 0.1–10 µm) will be collected via dark-field imaging simultaneously with regular attenuation radiography (>10 µm). The dark field is analogous to the polarization loss measured in spin-echo SANS (SESANS) and is related to isotropic SANS through a Hankel transform. Therefore, we use this close relationship and analyze results from SANS, USANS, SESANS and dark-field imaging of monodisperse spheres as a validation metric for the interferometry measurements. The results also highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these neutron techniques for both steady-state and pulsed neutron sources. Finally, we present an example of the value added by the spatial resolution enabled by dark-field imaging in the study of more complex heterogeneous materials. This information would otherwise be lost in other small-angle scattering measurements averaged over the sample.
Authors: Caitlyn M. Wolf, Peter Bajcsy, Wei-Ren Chen, Robert M. Dalgliesh, M. Cyrus Daugherty, Liliana de Campo, Fumiaki Funama, Lilin He, Michael G Huber, David L. Jacobson, Paul Kienzle, Youngju Kim, Hubert King, Nikolai N. Klimov, Jacob M. LaManna, Fankang Li, Alexander M. Long, Ryan Murphy, Gergely Nagy, Sarah M. Robinson, Pushkar Sathe, Gregory N. Smith, Anna Sokolova, Sven C. Vogel, Erik B. Watkins, Yuxuan Zhang, Daniel S. Hussey, Katie M. Weigandt
Institutions: National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST Center for Neutron Research, Information Technology Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Science and Technology Facilities Council, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Physical Measurement Laboratory, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, University of Maryland, College Park, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Language: English
Subfield: Radiation
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, University of Maryland, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Australian Government, European Commission, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Office of Science, National Nuclear Security Administration, Division of Materials Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Awards: G1017065088, G1019100964, G121915436, G1279347439, G1527848044, G1645119126, G1689194922, G203625172, G2142219094, G2411683797, G2988778103, G3108985476, G3137353516, G3510889102, G3898379540, G3969975560, G4310665315, G434337789, G4423657506, G5214689270, G5840121450, World class Science and Innovation with Neutrons in Europe 2020 – SINE2020, G6271517897, G6410514744, G6563880843, G675320460, G70659677, IMR-MIP DANSE - Distributed Data Analysis for Neutron Scattering Experiments - CNST, G7863209109, G7954661155, G807938293, G816254390, G8269158468, G8380713174, G8786941285, G8906985441, G8959976093
OpenAlex ID: W4404167228