All cameras can be supplied with either high efficiency x-ray or neutron scintillators.
Imaging with the 150x120mm NeutronOptics camera
Neutron images of a 3.5" hard disk (2s) and leaves (1s) with the 150x120mm camera on the ANTARES beam line (L/D=800, 2.5x107n.cm-2sec-1) at FRM-II Munich using a 20m cable. Our imaging cameras can also be supplied with more efficient (and expensive) CCD units. Together with an inexpensive stepper rotation table (not tested) this camera might be used for tomographic imaging. (With thanks to Dr Burkhard Schillinger who has described the Industrial applications of neutron imaging).
X-ray imaging with NeutronOptics cameras
X-ray image of a test sample obtained in 40 milli-seconds with the compact x-ray camera using a thick scintillator for higher efficiency even for hard x-rays (up to 350 kV).
The faint broad band at the bottom left is the adhesive tape used to support the sample! This particular image was obtained at 31 kV and 7.6 mA in 0.04 seconds. (With thanks to Dr Dominik Schlösser for access to high voltage x-ray generators at YXLON International).
Fast neutron imaging of dynamic processes
Enhanced neutron image of boiling water in a metallic structure obtained with the standard 100x100mm camera on the Es-Salam reactor in BIRINE (Algeria). (L/D=125, 1.6x106n.cm-2sec-1). Dr Faycal Kharfi and his colleagues have determined optimum conditions of gain to allow minimum exposure times for dynamic processes using the standard NeutronOptics camera on a relatively low flux beam.
Spatial modulation by Larmor precession (Delft)
Gaehler has proposed that the intensity of a neutron beam can be spatially modulated using Larmor precession techniques, and this might be used for small angle scattering.
A high resolution neutron detector is needed. The figure shows the horizontally summed intensity, with a modulation wave length of 0.9mm, obtained on SESANS at Delft with a compact NeutronOptics camera. The camera resolution was 0.085mm.
Wim G. Bouwman, Chris P. Duif, Roland Gaehler (2009) Physica B 404 2585–2589.
Incident IRIS beam spreading with wavelength
The incident beam from the IRIS guide tube at ISIS is larger at lower energies (right-hand image) due to the increased angle for total internal reflection at longer wavelengths. Neutron intensity has been mapped to colours using the RoboRealm imaging software.
Testing a composite monochromator
A video of the neutron intensity obtained by rocking a composite Pyrolytic Graphite monochromator through its reflecting angle. The monochromator consists of an array of individually aligned crystals focusing neutrons onto the sample. The video was recorded on a 100mm camera two meters behind a "pinhole" aperture at the sample position.
This clearly shows small mis-orientations of the individual crystals, with different blocks reflecting at
different times as they are rocked through the Bragg angle. At the sample position these
contributions are superimposed, and it is difficult to see the individual mis-alignments.
In some composite monochromators only ~50% of the available surface contributes to the intensity on the sample
at any one time, and without images like this the problem is not even recognised.
A sample in a cryostat within a magnet on D22
Image with cold neutrons of a sample shielded by an annular cadmium aperture inside a double-walled thin-tail cryostat within a magnet on the small angle scattering machine D22 at ILL Grenoble. The various aluminium walls of the cryostat tail are clearly visible.
First neutrons on SNAP at SNS Oak Ridge
The first neutrons obtained on the SNAP high pressure TOF machine at SNS, Oak Ridge National laboratory, taken from a re-touched photo of the TV screen connected to a NeutronOptics camera. The rectangular structure is an incident beam collimator.
Contrast sufficient to detect a vanadium can
Image of a thin-walled vanadium sample can with cadmium end-caps rotating in a neutron beam on the reactor at Chalk River, Canada. The image is nearly real size.
A weak 2x104.n.cm-2.sec-1 neutron beam
Image of a cadmium pointer on the weak 2x104 n.cm-2.sec-1 neutron beam of IN13 at ILL Grenoble obtained in 20 seconds using the long-exposure option of version 2 of the compact camera. Note the excellent resolution showing a bend in the fine tip of the pointer. This image is larger than the real size of the camera window (60x80mm).
Unfocused and focused monochromator at BARC
The beam from a flat monochromator (left-hand image) is broader and less intense than that from the focused monochromator at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India. Neutron intensity has been mapped to colours using the RoboRealm imaging software.
Field of view of the compact 80x60mm camera
The field of view of the compact camera is about the size of a visiting card.
The photo of a visiting card in place of the scintillator is lit unevenly by a small amount of light leaking in from under the lid, which has been left very slightly open to illuminate the camera for the purposes of illustration. The response of the camera to neutrons is of course uniform, reflecting the uniformity of the scintillator.
The mirror image video has been inverted in real time by the RoboRealm software, and corrections have
also been made in real time for the slight pincushion distortion due to the relatively wide field of view
in the very compact camera body.