Neutron time-of-flight scattering

Science with neutrons
Foundations
Neutron temperature Flux, Radiation, Transport Cross section, Absorption, Activation
Neutron scattering
Neutron diffraction Small-angle neutron scattering GISANS Reflectometry Inelastic neutron scattering Triple-axis spectrometer Time-of-flight spectrometer Backscattering spectrometer Spin-echo spectrometer
Other applications
Neutron tomography Activation analysis, Prompt gamma activation analysis Fundamental research with neutrons: Ultracold neutrons, Interferometry Fast neutron therapy Neutron capture therapy
Infrastructure
Neutron sources: Research reactor, Spallation, Neutron moderator Neutron optics: Reflector, Supermirror Detection
Neutron facilities
America: HFIR, LANSCE, NIST CNR -SNS Australia: OPAL Asia: J-PARC, HANARO Europe: BER II, FRM II, ILL, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, JINR, SINQ Historic: IPNS, HFBR Under construction: ESS
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In neutron time-of-flight scattering, a form of inelastic neutron scattering, the initial position and velocity of a pulse of neutrons is fixed, and their final position and the time after the pulse that the neutrons are detected are measured. By the principle of conservation of momentum, these pairs of coordinates may be transformed into momenta and energies for the neutrons, and the experimentalist may use this information to calculate the momentum and energy transferred to the sample. Inverse geometry spectrometers are also possible. In this case, the final position and velocity are fixed, and the incident coordinates varied.

Time-of-flight scattering can be performed at either a research reactor or a spallation source.