Opportunities for in-situ diffraction studies of advanced materials under extreme conditions at the US spallation neutron source

摘要

The spallation neutron source (SNS) is an accelerator-based neutron source in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Currently ramping up to 1.4 MW operating power, SNS will provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. Built by a partnership of six DOE laboratories SNS is operated as a user facility, open to scientists and engineers from universities, industry, and government laboratories in the United States and abroad. Eighteen dedicated beamline instruments are currently funded; four are completed and in operation, five are to be commissioned within a year and the others are at various stages of design and construction. All instruments at SNS have been designed to best in class and will provide unprecedented opportunities to explore the structure and dynamics of all materials. Amongst the funded instruments are a high-resolution very fast powder diffractometer (POWGEN3) optimized for parametric studies of materials under a wide range of conditions (e?‘?, e?‘?, e??? and flowing gases), an ultrahigh-pressure diffractometer (SNAP) for materials under extreme conditions of pressure (up to 100 GPa) and temperature, an engineering materials diffractometer (VULCAN) for mapping strain, texture and fundamental aspects of materials behaviour of high performance materials under strain forces, a high flux disordered materials diffractometer (NOMAD) for liquids, glasses and disorder in crystalline materials, and a small angle scattering diffractometer (EQSANS) for investigating precipitates, crystallization, domains and nanoparticles in composite materials. ORNL/SNS is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.