notiziario neutroni e luce di sincrotrone - issue 7 n.1, 2002 - special issue

Cover photo:

Schematic view ofthe ESS layout.

Il NOTIZIARIO è pubblicato acura del C.N.R. in collaborazionecon la Facoltà di Scienze M.F.N. e ilDipartimento di Fisica dell’Universitàdegli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”.

Vol. 7 n. 1 Aprile 2002 Special Issue

Autorizzazione del Tribunale diRoma n. 124/96 del 22-03-96

DIRETTORE RESPONSABILE:

C. Andreani

COMITATO DI DIREZIONE:

M. Apice, P. Bosi

COMITATO DI REDAZIONE:

L. Avaldi, F. Carsughi,G. Ruocco, U. Wanderingh

SEGRETERIA DI REDAZIONE:

D. Catena

HANNO COLLABORATO

A QUESTO NUMERO:

K. Clausen, P. Giugni,M.A. Ricci, U. Steigenberger

GRAFICA E STAMPA:

om graficavia Fabrizio Luscino 7300174RomaFinito di stamparenel mese di Aprile 2002

PER NUMERI ARRETRATI:

Paola Bosi, Tel: +39 6 49932057Fax: +39 6 49932456E-mail: [email protected].

PER INFORMAZIONI EDITORIALI:

Desy Catena, Università degli Studidi Roma “Tor Vergata”, PresidenzaFacoltà di Scienze M.F.N., via dellaRicerca Scientifica, 1 00133 RomaTel: +39 6 72594100Fax: +39 6 2023507E-mail: [email protected]

Vol. 7 n. 1 Aprile 2002 - Special Issue

NOTIZIARIONeutroni e Luce di Sincrotrone

SOMMARIO

Rivista delConsiglio Nazionaledelle Ricerche

Editoriale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2L. Bianco

ESS: A Vision for Science with Neutrons,

a Challenge for Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3P. Tindemans

CNR Initiative in Support of the Scientific

Research of Italian Community using Neutron

Scattering Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4C. Andreani

A Second Target Station at ISIS:

A New Opportunity for Inter-Disciplinary

Research Using Pulsed Neutrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7J. Penfold and A.D. Taylor

New Scientific Opportunities with the ESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10D. Richter and A. Wischnewski

The Role and Policy of INFM on Large Scale

Facilities for Neutrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14F. Toigo

Special IssueSpecial Issue

EDITORIALE

The updated ESS layout.The estimated costs are

based upon this ESSscience city.

Iwant to welcome the presentation of theEuropean Spallation Source (ESS) project tothe public, scientific organisations and fundingagencies, taking place in “Bundeshaus Bonn”

15-17 May 2002.This research project is only one example, out ofmany, of the effective scientific collaboration amongnational and international research institutions anduniversity communities. Indeed the Scientific Casefor this project was formulated by a large portionof the scientific community in Europe, operating inuniversities, national and international researchinstitutions and facilities and in industries(http://www.ess-europe.de/ess_js/science.html). Two articles hosted in this special issue outline theproject – by P. Tindemans – and its novel scientificopportunities – by D. Richter and A. Wischnewski.Another article – by J. Penfold and A.D. Taylor –illustrates the Second Target Station Project(http://www.isis.rl.ac.uk/target-station2) for inter-disciplinary research using pulsed neutrons at theISIS neutron facility operating at the RutherfordAppleton Laboratory (Chilton-UK).The ISIS facility, the world’s brightest pulsed neutronand muon source, is one of the European researchinstitutions participating to the ESS project.In our country the research activity of the Italiancommunity using neutron scattering techniques has

been supported by Consiglio Nazionale delleRicerche (CNR) since 1985, the year of the firstCNR- SERC (Science and Engineering ResearchCouncil) agreement for the ISIS source.This collaboration, up to date, has provided ourcommunity with a test ground for new experimentsand techniques as well as training opportunities foryoung Italian researchers.It has also served British-Italian collaboration for thedevelopment of novel instrumentations.Since the middle nineties the Italian community hasalso benefitted of the support of Istituto Nazionaleper la Fisica della Materia (INFM) for the researchactivities at the ILL Reactor (Grenoble-F).The latter European facility provides the most intenseneutron flux – Reactor based source – operating inthe world (http://www.ill.fr/).In 1998 CNR and INFM have both joined the ESSproject. The scientific and R&D activities of theItalian community, within the ESS project during the last years, are outlined in two articles,by C. Andreani and F. Toigo.In this context, I do wish to acknowledgeMarcello Fontanesi for his authoritative, precious and constant initiatives as CNR representative within the ESS R&D Council.

Lucio Bianco

SPECIAL ISSUE

3

Special Issue • Vol. 7 n. 1 Aprile 2002 • NOTIZIARIO NEUTRONI E LUCE DI SINCROTRONE

The European Spallation Source project on which 18 lab-oratories and organisations from 11 countries in Europeare working hard in the way up to its formal presenta-tion to Europe in May 2002, should be the European cor-nerstone of the global strategy for neutrons developedby the OECD Megascience Forum. The world needsthree spallation sources in the new MW power range;two of them are now under construction in the USA(SNS) and Japan (JNS).The brand new “European neutron landscape” publishedby the European neutron users ENSA underscores theircommitment to ESS. ESS will be based on a 10 MW pro-ton accelerator feeding 5 MW into a 50 Hz short pulsetarget and 5 MW into a 16 2/3 Hz long pulse target.There is no doubt about the need for neutrons comple-mentary to photons or electrons to investigate con-densed matter. A 2001 report by the working party onFine Analysis of Matter prepared for high level represen-tatives of the five major EU countries is clear about this.ESS will address a very wide range of scientific problemsin the field of soft and hard condensed matter. Theseproblems very often will have a direct technological andindustrial relevance: engineering, new (nano-technologybased) materials (magnetic and optical materials, poly-mers, glasses, soft-hard or organic inorganic compos-ites), energy storage and conversion, chemical engineer-ing, geotechnology, biotechnology etc. The new intensityrealm ESS opens (even more than the SNS and the JSNS)with its two optimised target stations will allow us tocarry out in situ, in vivo, real time, real life measure-ments. By reducing measurement times by a factor of 20to 50 many experiments that now are impractical be-cause they simply take far too long, come within reach. The science and technology case for ESS has beenworked up in the Engelberg report (2001), and is beingcalled a “strong one” according to the preliminary as-sessment of the German Wissenschaftsrat (December2001-January 2002). In a companion document the con-siderable intensity gains (and the essential contributionof the source intensity to these) for almost all instrumentclasses with respect to both ISIS and ILL have been care-fully established. As a consequence ESS will truly be a‘super ISIS’ and a ‘super ILL’.Every project in the category of ESS is by definition achallenge to technology, and one will always keep devel-oping the technologies used until the components are ac-

tually built and assembled. ESS has appointed a Techni-cal Advisory Committee with experts from many labora-tories in Europe (DESY, CERN, ESRF, ILL etc) and theUSA and Japan. Their assessment (January 2002) is thatif we continue the work that has been defined the labo-ratories and organisations behind ESS can build ESS aspresently designed based on the huge efforts of the ESSpartners over the past five to ten years. Just to substanti-ate a bit further what they stated: There are two convinc-ing accelerator designs, one normal conducting, the oth-er superconducting, further detailed comparison of thebenefits should decide. The instrument suite proposedfor Day-1 is very convincing. The stress problems in the5 MW short pulse target one can be confident to solveaccording to the TAC. What rests is the new problem of‘pitting’, a sort of corrosion. SNS, JSNS and ESS shouldtackle this together; very recent results in Japan look al-ready promising. Of course, a decision to build ESS, andif so when, is not just based on its science case and feasi-bility. A lot of politics comes in. Yet the crucial argu-ments are straightforward: • Europe needs to maintain its uncontested scientific

and technological leadership in neutron science andtechnology, and there by to secure its important polein condensed matter science and technology.

• With the advent of SNS and the JSNS a new realm ofintensity for spallation sources and science will beopened; any gap of more than about 5 years wouldcause a brain drain for top neutron scientists and theyounger generations in Europe, either to esp. the USAor outside the neutron area.

• ESS is the only way Europe can in the end remaincompetitive.

The first argument should be the overriding concern ofEuropean policymakers that pledge that Europe will bethe most advanced knowledge-based economy in a cou-ple of years. The second one essentially pinpoints thetime scale for ESS: we should try to get the first neutronsout of ESS in 2010/2011. So what about the strategy Eu-rope should follow in neutrons? The best short-term in-vestment for neutrons in Europe is without doubt contin-uing the ILL for another ten years until 2013, and invest-ing in the ILL Roadmap of 2001. Continued and extendeduse of ISIS is an essential component of any scenario.It is equally clear, however, that to be up against the com-petition in the next decade, a source well up in the MW

ESS: A VISION FOR SCIENCE WITH NEUTRONS,A CHALLENGE FOR EUROPEP. TindemansChairman of the ESS Council

Articolo ricevuto in redazione nel mese di Febbraio 2002

SPECIAL ISSUE

4

NOTIZIARIO NEUTRONI E LUCE DI SINCROTRONE • Vol. 7 n. 1 Aprile 2002 • Special Issue

PreambleIn recent times Europe has accomplished a position ofleadership by intertwining research and education at aworld-class experimental facilities. Among these aprominent role is played by both neutron and synchro-tron radiation facilities such as ILL - Institute LaueLangevin - at Grenoble (F), ISIS - at Rutherford AppletonLaboratory (UK), ESRF-European Synchrotron RadiationSource - at Grenoble (F), and ELETTRA - at Trieste (I). Inrecent times synchrotron radiation has developedtremendously and moved into some of the research ar-eas, where neutron scattering, previously, represented aunique tool. Rather than being a threat to neutron scat-tering, synchrotron radiation, as a complementary tech-nique, has to be regarded as an important stimulant forthe continued development of neutron scattering tech-niques which will favour a jointly tackle of most com-plex scientific problems. In particular, as far as the re-search with neutrons is concerned, it is nowadays car-ried out by more than 4500 European scientists and cur-rently performed at 14 national and 1 international (ILL)

facilities in Europe; 5 of these facilities being low flux fa-cilities and only used locally. The research programmecurrently performed at these facilities encompasses bothbasic and strategic research, with much collaborationamong academia, research institutions and industriesand a ‘peer review’ system select, on the average twice ayear, the experimental program to be performed. At these facilities, very sophisticated experimental tech-niques are used routinely in order to determine, at anhigh degree of precision, structural and dynamical prop-erties of materials. The increasing sophistication, neededfor the application of these tools, requires that usersfrom Universities, research laboratories as well as fromindustrial laboratories, had a guaranteed access to LargeScale Facilities, where the specific experimental apparataare available. At the same time scientific research oncomplex themes, demands an interdisciplinary approachfrom the methodological point of view and both neutronspectroscopy and synchrotron radiation techniques, his-torically tailored to some specific research field, such asphysics, are now, naturally, become of interest to a wide

CNR INITIATIVE IN SUPPORT OF THESCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OF ITALIAN COMMUNITYUSING NEUTRON SCATTERING TECHNIQUESC. AndreaniDirector of Notiziario Neutroni e Luce di Sincrotrone

Articolo ricevuto in redazione nel mese di Marzo 2002

range is a must. The source performance is what counts;all improvements on instruments will be universallyshared. And ESS will be more then a factor of ten betterthan anything on offer now or in an advanced stage of de-cision making (including the AUSTRON plans). Comparethat to the source gain of a factor of 4 only from the veryfirst Chalk River reactor to the ILL reactor!On the other hand it is important to maintain, as ENSA –the European Neutron Scatterers Association – stresses, anetwork of sources including smaller ones, for training,development work, for those front ran to experimentsthat do not need the highest intensity, niche activities towhich one can ‘tune’ a less powerful source, etc. Thiscalls for a wider and more integrated European strategythan has been considered so far by individual countries,in order to arrive at a viable overall scenario for ESS onthe one hand, and in ILL, ISIS and the ragional facilitieson the other hand. It should take account of resonances

set… when facilities are closed, and precise assumptionsabout life times. Proposals to jointly produce technolo-gies and components critical to the development of theinfrastructure and the instrumentation of all Europeanneutron research centres, could be an important part ofsuch a strategy.Europe is facing difficult decisions in order to find itsway in many areas. In science and technology policy theinevitable consequence of adopting a European perspec-tive (and what other would make sense given the ambi-tions of its leaders and population?) is that national de-cisions should be considered as part of , and no longer asa datum for a European strategy. Sometimes one alsowill have to accept consequences for facilities that havebeen built up in a different competitive arena. The scien-tists understand this, because their environment is aglobal one. That is why there is such unanimous supportin the European Neutron Scatterers Association for ESS.

range of scientists working in other scientific areas. Forinstance the use of neutron as a microscopic probe of mat-ter has expanded rapidly into other disciplines, such asmaterials science and engineering, polymer science,structural biology, dynamics of biological entities,biotechnology, structural materials, food science andtechnology, fundamental physics, and earth sciences1,2.

Research activities of the Italian CommunityNowadays, in Italy, neutron scattering users consist in acommunity of about 250 scientists with their scientific re-search at ISIS pulsed neutron source (Chilton-UK) and atILL (Grenoble-F) being supported by the Italian ResearchInstitutions CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche)and INFM (Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia),respectively. The former facility, the premier Pulsed Neu-tron Scattering Facility in the World (160 kW), operates atthe Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory. Since in middleeighties ISIS source become operational, CNR has con-stantly invested in the research activities based at this fa-cility, in that favouring a considerable development andstrengthening of Italian research community using neu-tron scattering techniques. In the early eighties the Italiancommunity was indeed represented by less than 10 users.CNR assures support to research activities based at

pulsed neutron sources and R&D in neutron instrumen-tation of the Italian community through: • an international agreement signed, in the year 1985,with SERC (Science and Engineering Research Council), andpresently in force with CCLRC (Council for the Central Lab-oratory of the Research Councils). This initiative guaranteesto the Italian community: 1) 5% (quoted presently about1.8 M€) per year access to the ISIS experimental programwith both neutron and muon probes (see Table 1); 2) fi-nancial support to Italian teams for research and devel-opments program of novel pulsed neutron scattering in-strumentation at ISIS; 3) support for training of youngItalian scientists at ISIS. Within this agreement the Italiancommunity has provided two inelastic neutron scatteringspectrometers, i.e. PRISMA and TOSCA spectrometers.Both instruments, designed and constructed in Italy, atthe CNR own laboratories, Istituto di Struttura della Ma-teria (ISM) and Istituto di Elettronica Quantistica (IEQ),are nowadays operating the ISIS facility. The success ofthese projects and the high quality of the Italian scientificresearch at ISIS are the result of the effective collaborationamong CCLRC, CNR as well as British and Italian re-searchers from universities. • an international agreement signed, in the year 1998,with the ESS R&D Council. The latest, a consortium of Eu-ropean Research Institutions and Universities, coordinatesthe initiative for a 5 MW, third generation, pulsed neutronsource in Europe: the European Spallation Source (ESS)(http://www.ess-europe.de/). An exhaustive descriptionof the initiative and research activities of the Italian com-munity within the ESS project can be found in an articleby Prof. Marcello Fontanesi3, published on this journal inthe first issue last year. The contribution of the CNR to theESS R&D project regards research and developments(R&D) of novel instrumentation.

Present scenario on pulsed neutron sourcesSpallation was pioneered in the early 1980s in the UnitedStates and Japan with low-power sources of a few kilo-watts. The success of the first spallation sources led tothe construction of a source in the 50 kW range in theUnited States and one of 160 kW in the United Kingdom.

SPECIAL ISSUE

5


Table 1

ROUND REQUESTED ALLOCATED

Days % Days %88/1 222,3 11,8 100,1 10,589/1 203,0 10,3 55,1 6,089/2 198,3 11,4 64,8 9,890/1 198,8 10,7 33,0 5,590/2 170,3 8,8 53,5 7,691/1 176,0 7,9 61,8 7,991/2 169,3 8,1 57,4 5,892/1 135,3 4,7 49,8 4,692/2 167,4 7,3 61,3 7,593/1 172,0 6,1 45,9 4,993/2 158,6 6,7 51,9 5,194/1 112,3 4,6 39,4 4,294/2 123,6 5,0 51,1 4,995/1 190,4 8,2 72,4 6,595/2 141,8 5,7 56,5 4,796/1 119,7 5,3 53,3 4,696/2 143,7 5,9 57,7 4,797/1 102,0 4,6 56,3 4,597/2 164 7,5 71 6,098/1 123 5,7 52 4,198/2 189 8,8 92 6,699/1 127 6,6 68 5,699/2 205 10,6 105 7,300/1 242 11,8 104 8,700/2 192 8,6 93 7,301/1 189 10,1 93 7,401/2 129 6,6 81 6,302/1 188 9,9 82 8,0

TOTAL 4652,8 1862,3

SPECIAL ISSUE

6


The present scenario on pulsed neutron sources includesthree third generation neutron pulsed sources and twosecond generation ones.• The American source SNS is the first third generationspallation neutron source which will come into opera-tion. The construction of the SNS facility started withground breaking on December 15th of the year 1999 atOak Ridge in Tennessee. The approved 1.400 M$ projectwas for a 2 MW short pulse spallation source operatingat 60 Hz. The facility will have one target station with astart-up due in the year 2006. A proposal for a LongWavelength Target Station (up to 600 kW) operating at alower frequency is also seriously considered. The designstudy for the second target station is funded by the Na-tional Science Foundation. The full facility is expected tooperate with both target stations around the year 2008.• Japan has announced a decision to build a multi-pur-pose facility that will incorporate a high-intensity (1MW, upgradeable to 5 MW) with a proton acceleratorwhich will be completed by the year 2007. A multipur-pose facility, built around a single high-intensity protonaccelerator, will supply a variety of particle beams: neu-trons, protons, neutrinos, muons, as well as exotic unsta-ble particles (pions, kaons, etc.) for nuclear physics re-search. The facility will include a spallation neutronsource and a muon source as well.• The European source is a 5 MW source, named theESS (European Spalllation Neutron Source). This projectis promoted and coordinated by a consortium of Euro-pean Research Institutions and Universities, the ESS R&DCouncil (see article by P. Tindemans - page 3, and by D.Richter and A. Wischnewski - page 10, in this issue). TheESS Council, in a meeting held in Abingdon (UK) on 16May 2001, decided to launch the ESS project on the 15-17May 2002 . Aim of this initiative is to present officially theESS project to the public, science organisations and fund-ing agencies and to initiate both the decision process forthe project and the process for finding a site for the ESSfacility. The presentation will be embedded in a European

neutron users meeting and a symposium on neutronscattering - the scientific perspectives opened up by theESS - to be held in “Bundeshaus Bonn“ - The old Germanhouse of Parliament – (see flyer included within this is-sue). In recent OECD documents prepared by the Com-mittee for Scientific and Technological Policy, and GlobalScience Forum - Workshop on Strategic Policy Issues1

and Workshop on Large Facilities for Studying the Struc-ture and Dynamics of Matter2 - the ESS project, given itsstrategic importance on both regional and global size, hasbeen included among those initiative to be considered forfuture investment by the OECD countries.• Another pulsed neutron source is the Target StationII Project at ISIS (http://www.isis.rl.ac.uk/), a second,new next generation neutron production target, whichwill be furnished with a novel instrument suite, exploit-ing the latest technological advances in neutron beamline components. The provision of a Second Target Sta-tion would be combined with an upgrade to the ISIS ac-celerator to increase the beam current from 200 µA to 300µA. The research programme will be strongly interdisci-plinary, with particular emphasis on soft condensedmatter, biological sciences and advanced materials (seearticle by J. Penfold and A.D. Taylor, pag 7). A 5% partic-ipation to ISIS-II projects is estimated in about 2.0 M€ ÷2.5 M€ per year.• AUSTRON pulsed neutron source, a 360 M€ project,aims to deliver, within the year 2008 a second generationpulsed neutron source of 0.5 MW) (http://www.bmb-wk.gv.at/start.asp).An overview of the timetables for the European projectson pulsed neutron sources is given in Table 2.

Table 2

Pulsed neutron Sources 2002 2006 2008 2010

ISIS 0.16 MWISIS II 0.36 MW 0.36 MW 0.36 MWAUSTRON 0.50 MW 0.50 MWESS 5.00 MW

Table 3

Research Institution/Funding Institution Project title Research activity

CNR-ISM (Frascati-Roma) / CNR PRISMA Inelastic neutron spectrometer for the study of collective excitations

CNR-IEQ (Firenze) / CNR TOSCA Inelastic neutron scattering instrument for spectroscopic studies on molecular systems

INFM / European Community XENNI / TECHNI Solid state detectors

University of Milano Bicocca andRome Tor Vergata / European Community TECHNI γ_detectors for eV neutron spectroscopy

INFM / European Community VESUVIO Inelastic neutron scattering instrument for spectroscopic studies at the eV energies

INFM / European Community e.VERDI Inelastic neutron scattering instrument for spectroscopic studies at low q and highenergies (E>1 eV)

CNR, INFM / CNR, INFM Large area crystal monochromators

University of Parma / European Community EMU Development of second European Musr spectrometer

University of Parma / European Community SLOWMU Development of an Ultraslow Muon Source for the EC Muon facility at ISIS

Fig. 1.Schematicrepresentationof the SecondTarget Stationat ISIS.

SPECIAL ISSUE

7


The planned Second Target Station at the ISIS pulsed neutronfacility at RAL represents a new generation of neutron pro-duction target and instrument suite. It will offer unique in-strumentation and unrivalled potential for structural and dy-namical studies of condensed matter, using cold neutrons andhigh resolution spectroscopy. Such studies will be inter-disci-plinary, with applications in Soft Condensed Matter, Ad-vanced Materials and Bio-molecular Sciences (‘A Second Tar-get Station at ISIS’, CCLRC report, RAL-TR-2000-032).

ISIS is currently the most intense and extensively instru-mented pulsed neutron sources, and the effective andgrowing exploitation of ISIS over a broad range of con-densed matter research has powerfully demonstratedthe specific benefits of the time of flight technique in

A SECOND TARGET STATION AT ISIS:A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR INTER-DISCIPLINARYRESEARCH USING PULSED NEUTRONSJ. Penfold and A.D. TaylorISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, CCLRC, Chilton, Didcot, OXON, UK

Articolo ricevuto in redazione nel mese di Gennaio 2002

Italian projects and CNR investments in neutron scatteringat the ISIS facilityIt has to be recalled3 that, in the period 1985-2002 theCNR total staff effort in pulsed neutron sources activitieshas exceeded on the average 4.5 man year per year witha total investment of 3.5 M€ (PRISMA and TOSCA spec-trometers at ISIS). The access to ISIS, in the same period,corresponded to a total investment of about 18 M€. Re-sources for activities within the ESS project have beenabout 20 K€ per year. The CNR supports to ISIS pro-gram has triggered several initiatives devoted to the de-sign and development of novel neutron and muon in-strumentations of interest for the R&D instrumental ac-tivity within the ESS project. These are listed in Table 3. Resources for these projects have come directly from bothCNR and the European Community with some addition-al resources from INFM and Universities. It has to bestressed the CCLRC-CNR agreement has allowed ourcommunity to play a key role in the cost effective use ofneutron scattering at ISIS, being a prerequisite of eligibili-ty for most of the additional projects financed to the Ital-ian Community, through the EU Access to Large Scale Fa-cilities initiative. In addition these projects have triggeredan effective international and national collaboration

among researchers from British and Italian Institutions,such as CCLRC, CNR and INFM, as well as Europeanuniversities.Presently the CCLRC-CNR agreement is still in force andthe access to ISIS scientific and instrumental programrepresents the best warranty for the efficient completionof those projects still in progress, listed in Table 3. In myopinion the preservation of this CNR initiative at ISIS isalso the best way to guarantee, in the near future, a paral-lel effective and constructive participation of the Italiancommunity to the several and distinct phases of bothAUSTRON and ESS projects.

References1OECD Global Science Forum-Workshop on Strategic Poli-cy Issues (High Intensity Proton Beam Facilities- Paris 25Settembre 2000)2 OECD Global Science Forum-Workshop on Large Facili-ties for Studying the Structure and Dynamics of MatterCopenhagen, 20 - 21 September, 20013Marcello Fontanesi, ‘Partecipazione del CNR al ProgettoEuropean Spallation Source (ESS) in ambito ESS R&DCouncil Notiziario Neutroni e Luce di Sincrotrone’ Vol.6, N. 1 (2001).

SPECIAL ISSUE

8


neutron scattering on pulsed sources. The Second TargetStation will build on the success of ISIS, and extend itscapability into new areas.The proposed Second Target Station at ISIS is a low fre-quency, low power target station, which would operate at10 hz, taking 1-5 pulses from the ISIS Synchrotron (see fig-ure 1). The low power dissipation and low frequency willenable it to be optimised for the production of cold neu-trons, in a way not possible on the existing high powertarget station. Substantial gains in performance of greaterthan an order of magnitude over the existing target sta-tion at ISIS will be achieved for cold neutrons and highresolution instrumentation with a broad spectral range.These developments will maintain ISIS at the forefrontof accelerator based pulsed neutron sources into the fu-ture, and provide effective competition in cold neutroninstrumentation with the major new pulsed source de-velopments, the SNS project in the USA, and the JointHadron Facility in Japan.The potentially impressive gains in the capability of coldneutron scattering and high resolution studies will pro-vide exciting new opportunities in the technologicallysignificant areas of Soft Condensed Matter, AdvancedMaterials and Bio-Molecular Sciences. Just as the adventof the high flux reactor at the Institute Laue Langevin,Grenoble in the early 1970’s, with its dedicated cold neu-tron source, broadened considerably the appeal of neu-tron scattering, so the development of the Second TargetStation at ISIS, optimised for long wavelength neutrons,will have a major impact on the study of complex con-densed matter systems. The combination of the cold

neutron flux, the simultaneously available broad spectralrange and the potential for high resolution, will providefacilities that are not available elsewhere.In the areas of Advanced Materials and Soft Matter thenew scientific opportunities are in the study of complex,multi-component or multi-phase systems, the use ofcomplex sample environments, and the investigation ofnon-equilibrium systems. In such systems the dimensionscales of importance often range from molecular tomeso-scale. This dictates the need for a broad wave-length range with a particular emphasis on cold neu-trons. Kinetic studies (ranging from chemical reactionsto probing dynamic surface tension) require the samebroad spectral range with higher fluxes of cold neutrons.Multi-component or multi-phase systems are onlytractable with the parametric studies possible using en-hanced flux and high resolution. The Life Sciences arecurrently making an immense impact, with manyhealth-related issues underlying this importance. Thesuccess of X-ray crystallography in solving complex pro-teins and virus structures to high resolution has beencritical for understanding structure-function relation-ships, and this has been further boosted by the HumanGenome Project and the prospects of post genome re-search on a large number of newly identified protein se-quences. The role of neutron crystallography is sec-ondary to these high resolution x-ray studies. However,there are important contributions that neutrons willmake in, for example, determining water or hydrogenlocation at lower resolution. In the broader context thepost Genome era will provide exciting and important

Fig. 2. Site layout of proposedSecond Target Station.

SPECIAL ISSUE

9


new opportunities in the broader bio-molecular sciencesremit, in fields of pharmacy, food science, sensors, bio-compatibility and bio-functionality. In these particularareas there is much overlap with the areas of interestidentified in Soft Matter and Advanced Materials, andtheir specific requirements. The main scientific areas inwhich significant developments are envisaged are sum-marised as follows:

Soft Condensed Matter: Surface, interfacial and bulkproperties of complex fluids (polymers, surfactants,colloids).Bio-molecular Sciences: Pharmaceuticals, drug deliveryformulations, membrane structures, membrane-proteininteractions, bio-compatibility and functionality, andfood technology.Advanced Materials: Crystalline, magnetic, disorderedand engineering materials; including complex inorganicand organic assemblies, clathrates, intercalates, zeolites,nano-structured materials, high temperature supercon-ductors, giant magneto-resistance materials, magneticfilms and multi-layers, spin valves, glasses, complex flu-ids, porous media.The second target station will be situated on the south-ern side of the existing high power target (see figure 2),and one pulse in five from the ISIS synchrotron will bedirected along a new proton beam line. The relativelylow power target station will have a tantallum target,cryogenic moderators in “wing” geometry (a 25K decou-pled solid methane moderator, and a 25K coupled liquidhydrogen moderator), and will be surrounded by aberyllium reflector. 9 instrument beam points will vieweach moderator (see figure 3).The relatively low proton power will allow target andmoderator designs which are optimised for the produc-tion of long wavelength neutrons, and hence more effi-cient than those on the existing target station. In particu-lar, the use of a pre-moderator and a grooved coupledsolid methane moderator will provide a significant en-hancement in cold neutron flux (with a relaxed pulsestructure, ∆t ≤ 300 msec) (see figure 4). Further gains forthe coupled moderator will be obtained using a groovedsurface. It is now recognised that neutron flux does not

simply scale with proton power/current, and that atmodest target power levels there are gain factors and ef-ficiency factors which are not available at higher powerlevels. This is particularly true for cold neutron produc-tion; and this coupled with the broad wavelength bandmore easily available at low source frequencies, is an at-tractive proposition.The detailed Monte Carlo calculations (see figure 4) tocalculate and optimise the target station performance

Fig. 3. Second Target Station Target Moderator Assembly.

Fig. 4. Summary of calculated performance for different moderators, andcomparison with other developments.

Fig. 5. Possibleinstrument suitelayout.

SPECIAL ISSUE

10


are now at a well advanced stage. The low power levels(~60 kW) enables a compact design with exceptionallygood neutron coupling to be developed, and the use ofmoderator materials (solid methane) not possible athigher power levels. The predicted performance for coldneutrons is similar to that expected of a 600 kW source.A potential instrument suite, that will benefit from thecharacteristics of the Second Target Station, has beenspecified (see figure 5). The particular features, such asthe enhanced cold neutron flux, the broad spectral rangeavailable (100ms time frame), and the potential for highresolution (long flight paths), will impact most on neu-tron reflectivity, small angle neutron scattering (SANS),very high resolution spectroscopy, non-crystalline dif-fraction, high resolution crystalline diffraction and largescale crystallography.For example, in small angle scattering a wide Q range(0.002 to 0.2 Å-1 at a scattered flight path of 10m) canbe measured in a single measurement with a flux gain~ x 30 compared to the existing ISIS SANS instrument,LOQ. For the reflectometers an increase in count rate ≥x10 over the existing ISIS reflectometers CRISP andSURF, over an extended Q range available in a single

measurement (0.01 to 0.5 Å-1) is anticipated.The project funding has provision for an initial instru-ment suite of 7 instruments, comprising of 2 new in-struments and 5 transferred from the existing 50Hz tar-get station. It is planned to develop partnerships tomore fully exploit the potential of the new and existingtarget stations.It is expected that the formal commencement of the pro-ject will be announced this April, and that the start of themajor civil engineering work will start in January 2003.The project schedule is such that the first proton beam tothe target is planned for December 2006, with full opera-tion of the facility by mid-2007.With the new synchrotron radiation source, Diamond,commencing operation at RAL at about the same time,the Rutherford site will be an exciting and vibrant centre for Condensed Matter research over the next 10-15 years. Further details about the Second Target Station Project can be found on our web site (www.isis.rl.ac.uk/targetstation2/), or from Jeff Penfold([email protected]), Tim Broome ([email protected]) orAndrew Taylor ([email protected]).

As the next decisive step in the evolution of neutronsources, ESS will offer a revolution in neutron science: itwill provide for an enhancement in source performancefor the different applications by factors between 10 and100, i.e. much more than has been achieved since the pi-oneering days of Brockhouse. Since the development ofresearch reactors at reasonable costs (and technical risk)has found its end with the ILL, the real challenge of ESSis that it has to transform the spallation source techniquefrom being at present complementary to reactors to su-perior across the board.Recognising the scientific opportunities of third genera-tion neutron sources like ESS and evaluating the de-mand for neutrons, the overriding need for such asource in Europe has been emphasised within the globalneutron strategy compiled by the OECD MegascienceForum in 1998 and was endorsed by the OECD Ministe-rial Conference in 1999. The combination of a 50Hz

short pulse and a 16 2/3 Hz long pulse target station at alevel of 5MW each will make ESS the best neutronsource world wide for all classes of instruments. A con-servative estimate based on existing instrumentationperformed by a large group of instrumentation special-ists revealed an average intensity gain factor for 28 in-strument classes of about 50 compared to present “bestof its class” instruments. Beyond that in particular thelong pulse target station offers opportunities for novelinstrumentation, where new experimental techniqueslike repetition rate and wavelength frame multiplicationwill be exploited. This will lead to further gains in effi-ciency.

Scientific OpportunitiesFor a strictly intensity limited technique these unprece-dented improvements will open new scientific opportu-nities in many fields of condensed matter research. TheESS is a large facility for a broad range of science. It is

NEW SCIENTIFIC OPPORTUNITIES WITH THE ESS

D. Richter, A. WischnewskiForschungszentrum Jülich, Institut für Festkörperforschung,Jülich, Germany

Articolo ricevuto in redazione nel mese di Febbraio 2002

SPECIAL ISSUE

11


motivated not by one central scientific problem, butrather by a multitude of fascinating questions frommany fields of science. An increasing number of thesequestions impact upon the daily lives of people. The ESSwill provide a centre of innovation and excellence for thescientific community not only in Europe but world-wide. In the following, these more general statementswill be substantiated by some examples from differentneutron research areas.

Solid State PhysicsMagnetism and superconductivity are among the tradi-tional areas of neutrons in condensed matter and onemight, perhaps, expect a slowing of activity. Far from it.The discovery of heavy fermions, of high-Tc supercon-ductors, spin-Peierls transitions, C60 and all its deriva-tives, molecular magnets and the explosive growth ofmultilayer science have provided a plethora of new phe-nomena in the last decade that call for neutron tech-niques. At the more exotic end are the studies at verylow temperature, now down to 500 pK, on nuclei spinordering, opening a completely new field of science. Thecentre of activity has, of course, been in the study of sys-tems exhibiting novel effects due to strong electronic cor-relation, such as high-Tc materials, heavy fermions orcolossal magnetoresistance manganites. For these mate-rials, the unique capability of neutrons to disentanglestructural and magnetic fluctuations by means of polari-sation analysis is decisive, a recent example being theidentification of structural and magnetic polarons in themanganites. With the ESS as a more powerful source, theemphasis will shift to complexity, including magneticfluctuations in organic materials or in nanostructuralmaterials such a quantum dots.

Liquids and GlassesLiquids and glasses are an important part of our dailylife and at the same time pose a central scientific prob-lem. The scientific problem is to understand the atomic

dynamics in the absence of long range order. Presentlythere is neither a satisfactory microscopic understandingof the low-temperature anomalies of glasses, nor of thenature of the glass transition. The crucial advantage ofneutrons is the simplicity of their cross section in thescattering process. This well-understood cross-section al-lows detailed comparison to both theory and numericalsimulation and it is this combination which presentlydrives understanding in these fields. Further drivecomes from new developments in other techniques. Inparticular inelastic x-ray scattering and NMR which pro-vide important complementary information. To take anexample, x-ray Brillouin scattering with a resolution of1.5 meV has stimulated neutron scattering measure-ments at 0.5 meV below the Brillouin line using longwavelength neutrons. This allowed the multiple scatter-ing problem encountered there to be overcome.

Fundamental Neutron PhysicsDuring the past 25 years, our world-view of nature haschanged dramatically, from the constituents of elemen-tary particles to the status of the universe. Neutronphysics has made major contributions to this evolution-ary process. In particular accurate measurements of neu-tron beta decay were instrumental in fixing the numberof particle families at three. Moreover neutron experi-ments have made substantial contributions to our under-standing of strong, electroweak and gravitational inter-actions. Neutron interferometry can be used to obtainnon-classical states allowing us to check the very foun-dations of quantum mechanics.Yet many crucial questions remain to be answered atmore powerful neutron sources:• Elucidate the origin of the handedness of nature bylooking for an exotic decay mode of the neutron a twodecades decrease of the present limit for the electric di-pole moment of the neutron will supply information onthe matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe.• It is believed that the strong nuclear force is essential-ly the same for protons and neutrons. The best way tocheck whether deviations in the singlet scatteringlengths signal a breakdown of isospin invariance, is a di-rect scattering measurement of the neutron-neutron scat-tering at very low energy, which will become feasible atthe ESS (Fig. 1).

Soft Condensed MatterSoft matter (polymers, thermotropic liquid crystals, mi-cellar solutions, microemulsions, colloidal suspensions,membranes and vesicles) is one of the major growth ar-eas of neutron scattering; much of the research havingdirect implications and applications for industry. Thetwo crucial points for the application of neutrons in thisarea are: the ability for H/D labelling, and the fact thatFig. 1. Sketch of the proposed neutron-neutron scattering experiments.

SPECIAL ISSUE

12


the slow time scales of molecular motions are within therange of observation of slow neutron techniques, espe-cially of the spin-echo method. Neutrons have already played a major role in under-standing polymer conformation and rheology. Small an-gle neutron scattering remains the pre-eminent tech-nique for establishing the conformation of polymers. Theneutron spin-echo method begins to be able to checkquantitatively the validity of the widely accepted repta-tion model, thus adding appreciably to our knowledgeof the topological constraints present in polymer entan-

glement. Furthermore, a significantly improved sourcelike ESS will facilitate a large range of real time experi-ments which will follow non-equilibrium phenomenalike polymerisation reactions, phase separation, polymerprocessing, etc.Another large class of materials are surfactants and self-assembling systems. Again, these are widely used in in-dustry e.g. in both the oil and detergent industry. X-raysare often a very useful tool but the ability of the H/Dsubstitution gives neutrons the key role. A striking ex-ample is the boosting effect of amphiphilic block copoly-mers added to the detergent in water-oil microemul-sions. An effect discovered in neutron small angle con-trast-variation experiments. This effect fuels the hope ofimproving the efficiency of detergents by an unexpect-edly large factor.While today only a small class of interfaces or surfacesmay be studied by reflectometry, the ESS will allow toinvestigate almost any interface. Two areas of particularimportance are the liquid/liquid interfaces, where ad-sorbed polymers or amphiphilics play a crucial role indetermining the stability of emulsions and biolubrica-tion (see Fig. 2), where the delicate control of environ-mental factors (pH, ion concentration, etc.) is used tomanipulate the conformation of polyelectrolytes at thelubricated interface.

Biology and BiotechnologyNeutrons have a unique role to play in determining thestructure and dynamics of biological macromoleculesand their complexes. The similar scattering signal fromdeuterium, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen allows the fulldetermination of the positions and dynamics of theatoms “of life”. In addition the negative scatteringlength of hydrogen allows the well-known contrastvariation method to be applied to dissect the compo-nent parts of multimacromolecular complexes. In thepost genomic era structure determining techniques arereaching towards high throughput and a high numberof proteins to be investigated. Thus, the ESS will offermajor gains in neutron capability over the current tech-nical frontier with reactor source technology wherebysmaller samples, smaller quantities and lower concen-trations all become viable. Thus, the major structure anddynamics techniques of protein crystallography, smallangle neutron scattering, inelastic scattering and mem-brane reflectometry will all benefit in a major way. Theconsiderably reduced measuring times will allow nativerather than artificial membranes to be probed by reflec-tometry, including membrane bound proteins at the sur-face of actual cells. One example are membrane biophysical studies via na-tive state reflectometry with impact to biosensors andnanobiostructures. Such biochips will become a crucial

Fig. 3. Neutron reflectometry. ESS fluxes will allow the study of nativeplasma membranes extracted from living cells deposited to planar sub-strates. A specially designed polymer cushion between solid substrateand membrane will provide the soft interface required for keeping themembrane spanning proteins (ion channels, receptors, transporters) intheir active state during the experiments.

Fig. 2. The study of biolubrication by neutron reflection. The highintensity neutron beam will allow the illuminated area of interface to bereduced to a size (less than 10mm2) that should be manageable inconjunction with a force balance. This will allow the direct study of theconformation of adsorbed polyelectrolyte by reflection while variousforces are applied to the system.

SPECIAL ISSUE

13


technology for many applications and diagnostics aswell as proteomics. The technology to emerge from fu-ture research will provide the tools for finding molecularmarkers, allowing detection of illnesses at an early stageand the unravelling of the human proteon. Neutron dataon such complex systems can become an important in-gredient in the design of more advanced combinationsof biological matter with solid surfaces for biochips in-cluding biosensors (see Fig. 3). Structural biology, as well as biotechnology, will benefitfrom the powerful ability of neutrons to contribute to thelocation of hydrogen atoms and water molecules in bio-logical systems. Thus it will contribute to the produc-tion of missing complementary data relevant for molecu-lar modelling and to the strategy of rational drug design,in synergy with other biophysical approaches.

Chemical Structure, Kinetics and DynamicsThere is a vast range of different chemical reactions in-vestigated by elastic and inelastic neutron scattering. Atleast 90 % of this work relies on the different scatteringcross sections of H and D, and on the great sensitivityof neutrons to light elements such as H and O in thepresence of heavy ones. Both features are great assetscompared to x-rays. The sensitivity to H and the sim-plicity of the cross section have allowed molecular vi-

brational spectroscopy to become quantitative in thesense that both eigenvalues and eigenvectors can be ob-tained. When combined with the Q-dependence thisgives information on the shape of the chemical poten-tial functions. These additional features, (as comparedto optical techniques), allow a much more rigorous testof theoretical models.One of the main activities in this field is connected withcatalysts. Such materials range from complex zeolitetemplates to relatively simple molecules such as thetransition-metal sulphides. In all cases the key aspect ofthe catalytic activity concerns the residence time and po-sition of a hydrocarbon molecule. This in turn affects thefrequency of the hydrogen vibrations, which one canmeasure in an inelastic neutron scattering experiment.Here the ESS would enable the measurement of shorterresidence times and smaller amounts of catalyst.

Earth and Environmental Sciences and Cultural HeritageNeutron scattering has been added to the earth scienceportfolio of methods only recently due to the latestgeneration of diffractometers and spectrometers at themost modern neutron sources. Yet many areas of earthscience research remain out of the reach of present dayneutron instrumentation. One of the most significant is-sues is related to the prediction of earth quakes andvolcanic eruptions. The reliability of the relevant mod-els crucially depends on the knowledge of the physicaland chemical properties of the materials involved(oceanic crust, upper mantle, continental crust). Fore-most among these properties is the role of water in thematerials and the behaviour of related magmas. Fron-tier applications of an ESS class neutron source are in-situ studies, where mineral structures and material be-haviours are investigated under extreme temperatureand pressure conditions to simulate the real situationdeep in the earth. Maintaining such conditions in thelaboratory usually requires massive sample environ-ment, which can, however, be penetrated by neutrons.

Material Science and EngineeringMaterials science is concerned with property control byinfluencing, or at least understanding, the microstruc-ture. Such microstructure concerns point defects, dislo-cations, interphase boundaries and internal interfaceswith microcracks, pores, voids, bubbles etc. Materialsscience is intimately related to processing methods, e.g.casting, hot and cold working, tempering, powder met-allurgy, mechanical alloying, molecular beam epitaxy,sol-gel synthesis etc. Since this covers such a wide fieldof materials it is natural that the material scientist uses avast array of analytical tools. Use of neutrons at the microscopic and mesoscopic levelis an important part of this arsenal. Two examples will

Fig. 4. The extremes of compressive (blue) and tensile (red) strains in asteel plate carrying a weld overlay are shown by neutron diffractionmapping. Undesired welding process variations cause irregularities inthe strain distribution.

y, m

m

x, mm

SPECIAL ISSUE

14


In the June 2001 issue of this Notiziario Neutroni e Luce diSincrotrone, Prof. Fontanesi - CNR representative in theESS R&D Council - presented a clear and exhaustive de-scription of the CNR participation in the Project for theEuropean Spallation Source (ESS). In this article, after in-troducing the scientific motivations that make neutronsand synchrotron radiation the most versatile and power-ful probes for a detailed investigation of the structureand dynamics of matter at a microscopic level, the au-thor described, even though summarily, the role of CNR

in the promotion of the use of existing sources by theItalian scientists and of their participation to the designof new ones. Very appropriately, the description showsthat the Italian participation in the design phase of ESSand, more generally in the utilization of large scale facili-ties for the fine analysis of matter, is supported in Italy,besides CNR, also by INFM. In this short note I will thentry to outline the actions undertaken by INFM in thisfield so to supplement the information given by Prof.Fontanesi.

THE ROLE AND POLICY OF INFM ON LARGE SCALEFACILITIES FOR NEUTRONSF. ToigoINFM President

Articolo ricevuto in redazione nel mese di Marzo 2002

Country Number of Neutron Number of neutron Ratio between users Financial engagement *Spectroscopy users (1998) % sources + and population (%/%) (estimate 2001) %

Austria 0.6 1 S 0.25 2.4Denmark 0.9 1 M (off) 0.56 3.8

France 17.3 1 M 1/3 H 1.00 21.3Germany 23.1 3 M 1/3 H 0.95 27.7**

Italy 3.7 0 0.22 2.8Holland 4.6 1 S 1.00 1.7

United Kingdom 34.8 1H + 1/3 H 2.05 28.7Spain 4.3 0 0.37 1.4

Sweden 2.0 1 M 0.77 3.4Swisse 8.7 1 M 4.14 6.8

demonstrate the variation in properties examined: In su-perconductors basic questions relate to vortex pinningthat affect the critical current that can be passed. Neu-trons can image this vortex lattice and help to determinethe best methods of fabrication, of for example supercon-ducting tapes. In the field of multilayers neutron reflec-tivity provide unique information about the extent of in-terfacial diffusion, and the direction and amplitude ofthe magnetic moments. These materials are at the fore-front of technology especially since the discovery of thegiant magnetoresistance.In the area of internal strains/stresses neutron diffrac-tion is now being used extensively. Its advantage overx-rays is the high penetrating power of the neutronand the large scattering angles involved, which allow agood definition of the “gauge” volume. At present theminimum gauge volume is about 1 mm3. If this couldbe reduced by three orders of magnitude, the tech-

nique would be of great interest in a large range of en-gineering problems, such as the remaining lifetime inturbine blades and the strains in and around rivets andwelds (see Fig. 4). Although part of this reduction maybe achieved by focussing techniques, there are clearlynew horizons that can only be reached by a new pow-erful source.The next generation of high power pulsed neutronsources will dramatically alter the nature of the experi-ments which are possible, allowing for the first time in-vestigations of materials in real time, with realistic di-mensions and in real conditions. The ESS will be an ex-tremely powerful tool for the analysis of advanced mate-rials, which are of scientific, commercial and practical in-terest. In this respect the ESS will be highly significantfor maintaining the competitive edge of materials sci-ence within the European Union as compared with thatin other parts of the world.

SPECIAL ISSUE

15


The role of the Institute as regards large scale researchinfrastructures descends from its founding law (June1994), which, among its institutional tasks, assignedINFM the task of starting and coordinating national andinternationals projects, also finalized to the constructionand use of large scale facilities. Moreover, the law specif-ically conferred to INFM the role of reference institution- on the Italian Government’s account - for the ESRFsource in Grenoble, of which INFM as well as CNR andINFN are the Italian partners. Following further specificlaws, INFM also became the main financing organisationof the ELETTRA light source. For these reasons, startingfrom its first three-years plan approved by CIPE on Au-gust 1995, one of the primary goals clearly stated byINFM plans has been that of supporting and promotingthe access to national and international infrastructuresfor the Fine Analysis of Matter for the whole nationalscientific community, on an interdisciplinary basis.Besides acting at the above mentioned ESRF and ELET-TRA synchrotron radiation sources, INFM has alsoplayed a successful and important role in fostering theuse of neutron spectroscopic techniques by the scientificItalian community operating in various disciplines(physicists, chemists, biologists, physicians, engineers,etc.). To this end, INFM has signed a partnership agree-ment with the ILL laboratory in Grenoble, supports theItalian access to the Orphée reactor in Saclay, and partici-pates to the international working group for the feasibili-ty study of ESS. It is to be mentioned however that, in spite of INFM andCNR’s efforts, the Italian presence in the field of neutronspectroscopy is extremely weak if compared with that ofthe West European countries, whatever parameters oneconsiders (see enclosed table).For this reason, in the three-year plan 2002-2004 submit-ted last december, INFM has confirmed its engagementin the development of neutron spectroscopy by structuringits action along three major lines:• Maintenance and development of the access to themain neutron scattering facilities, ILL in particular. Thisis the key action to support an appropriate level of activ-ity for the Italian research in the field.• Maintenance and development of the collaborationin the ESS project, as the strategic project to maintain theEuropean leadership in the study of condensed matterby neutron spectroscopy.• Development of a national laboratory for the supportof neutron research, both on the fundamental and tech-nical aspects. Ideally, such development should be cen-tred around a small neutron source. Besides supportingthe already established group in Grenoble, INFM will alsoensure the development of competencies in the field oftargets design and construction, neutron production andmoderators. Such competencies, which are essential to be

effective in the ESS collaboration, are also required in or-der to participate in other initiatives in the field of neu-tron sources, both existing or in a feasibility study phase.In some more detail the INFM policy with respect toneutron sources may be summarized as follows:

ILL – As already mentioned, the most important currentinitiative for INFM is the formal agreement with the In-stitut Laue Lagevin in Grenoble. This agreement ensuresthe access to this world-leading neutron spectroscopysource, not only to INFM scientists, but to the whole Ital-ian community, thus giving it full visibility and recogni-tion at the international level. The participation in ILL al-lows to carry out research activities in various fields bymaking use of the most advanced available instrumenta-tion in the world. The Italian community uses all theavailable beam-time, which is assigned through a severeselection of the proposals. Starting from 1997, the firstyear of our agreeement with ILL, every year Italian ap-plications have been submitted requiring at least twicethe beam-time available according to the agreement. Ananalysis of the experiment proposals reveals that rough-ly only half of the more than 230 scientists are associat-ed to INFM. In the last two years the number of propos-als as well as their scientific quality have both definitelyincreased, so that in the last assignment round the Italianquote has exceeded 5 %. The Italian research in bio-physics at ILL has recently recorded a significant growthrelated to the presence of an INFM operational CRG(IN13, up to 2005) which partially counterbalances theshortage of assigned beam-time. The establishment of asecond CRG (BRISP), foreseen for the second half of2002, might improve the situation for a range of activi-ties related to the study of disordered systems. The in-crease of the Italian participation share from 3% to 3.5%,at present limited to 2002 pending an assessment, shouldgive new impulse to the activities at ILL.In the future however, we may expect that the requestedbeam-time by far exceeds the available time, since theItalian scientific activity in the field is no longer limitedto the historical research units, since new groups are us-ing neutron spectroscopy techniques.Following the increase in the Italian quota, the cost ofthe INFM-ILL agreement has increased from 2.050K€/year to about 2.400 K€/year. This increase and thescientific appreciation gained at the international levelby the Italian scientists working in the field, have al-lowed INFM representatives in the ILL Scientific Counciland Steering Committee to request the upgrading of theinstruments of interest to our community to the highestpossible level, as planned by the Millennium Program. INFM plans to guarantee the maintenance and develop-ment of its two CRGs operating at ILL and, in view ofthe considerable enhancement in the use of ILL wishes

SPECIAL ISSUE

16


to increase the number of researchers at the facility, bothfor the operation of the existing instrumentation and tostimulate new design projects in close connection withthe national community, paying particular attention tothe introduction of new technologies.

LLB – In 2001 the collaboration between INFM and theLaboratoire Leon Brillouin in Paris was prosecuted and -given its importance for the Italian scientific community- a further extension was proposed. At the same time anew project is under consideration, for upgrading andoperating the small angle neutron scattering instrument(PAXE). Such a project would allow for the training ofspecialised technical personnel and, at the same time, itwould ensure the access to the instrumentation of thelaboratory, thus representing a significant opportunityfor INFM to be involved and increase its visibility in LLBand establish a high level SANS facility in support of dif-ferent research activities.Unfortunately, budget constraints have prevented INFMfrom starting this ambitious project in 2002 and forced itto confirm the agreement at the same conditions as in2001 instead.

Accelerator sources – New neutron sources and withhigher intensity may only be based on accelerators. Aspreviously observed, the development of the ESS projectplays an extremely important role for European re-search. INFM is considering this project as the firststrategic priority on a European basis, and consequentlyit has signed the Memorandum of Understanding for theyears 2001-2003.It must be noted however, that the Italian role in the fieldof neutron sources is severely limited by the lack of a na-tional source where to develop the basic scientific andtechnological training.Concerning accelerator-based sources, the ISIS source(Chilton, UK) is at present the world-leading infrastruc-ture of this kind and such it will remain until the com-pletion of the SNS source (Oak Ridge, US). As recalledin the above cited article by Fontanesi, the agreementbetween CNR and ISIS, (similar to the one of INFMwith ILL), has allowed the entire Italian community toperform experiments at this source, thus gaining rele-vance and prestige. At ISIS a second target, presentlyunder construction, will allow a significant increase ofequipment. Through EU funding, INFM has taken partin the construction of advanced instrumentation locatedat this source.INFM is very carefully considering the possibility of in-creasing its presence in the construction of new instru-

mentation for pulsed neutron sources, especially in viewof the development of ESS, but also in view of other ini-tiatives that have the potential of involving the ItalianGovernment directly, such as the AUSTRON project.A recent document produced by OECD, analizing andproposing policies for large infrastructures for the Fineanalysis of Matter, points out the need of regionals pro-jects, in addition to those established on a national orwhole European basis. Regional projects would coverthe necessity of personnel training and technological de-velopment and at the same time, provide beam-time forthose research proposals which do not essentially re-quire sources and instrumentation with the highest per-formances.In this context, and in view of the long commissioningperiod to be expected both for the US source (SNS, OakRidge) and the ESS European project before their fore-seen final objectives can be achieved, it may be advisableto consider the AUSTRON project as a favoable choice inthe medium term.The AUSTRON project aims at the realization of asource based on the spallation process, that allows theproduction of the maximum neutron flux and the high-est performances, making use of the current technologyfor the construction of both the proton accelerator andthe target for the production of neutrons from a spalla-tion process. This choice permits of foreseeing the fulloperation of the source in a predetermined time andwith the expected performances: a peak-flux higherthan the one expected from SNS and only a factor 2-4lower than the one from ESS.On the basis of these characteristics and the relativelylow cost expected for the Italian participation in the pro-ject, INFM is carefully evaluating the evolution of theproject and has expressed its interest in participating inthe definition of the machine and instrumentation char-acteristics.

The realization of all the actions described above re-quires considerable resources. INFM budget currentlydevoted to neutron spectroscopy activities is in the rangeof 3.300 K€/year, including the ILL agreement, the LLBagreement in its present form, users’ support and dedi-cated personnel, for which a small and dynamical in-crease is foreseen. To implement the accompanying mea-sures planned above at ISIS, LLB or for the constructionthe national source INFM is applying on a competitivebasis for additional funding from national or EUsources.

notiziario neutroni e luce di sincrotrone - issue 7 n.1, 2002 - special issue

Documents