The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, home of the spallation neutron source (SNS) and the high flux isotope reactor (HFIR) is as a leading center for neutron research, with a strong vibrant high-pressure program, a vital component of a state-of-the-art scientific portfolio. Indeed, the sole high-pressure-dedicated neutron diffractometer in the US, the SNAP instrument, was one of the earlier instruments to be built at the SNS. This facility now operates at 1.4 MW, almost five times brighter than at the start, almost 10 year ago, allowing many of the initial goals in high pressure, to become, now, a reality. The combination of the high neutron flux with state-of-the-art pressure cell design has resulted in measurements near 1 Mbar at SNAP [1], an unprecedented pressure range in the neutron context. This drive extended beyond the pressure-dedicated instrument but resulted in the expansion of high-pressure research in other scientific contexts as well. In this talk, an overview of SNAP’s current capabilities will be presented, including how the flexibility of the instrument and the high flux on sample is enabling exciting results in magnetism [2], crystal chemistry [3], geophysics [4] among others. SNAP is also undergoing upgrades that are benefiting detectors and neutron guide system, and these are expected to result in significant improved performance. Finally, to illustrate how the ongoing effort to build a vigorous high-pressure program is also spilling out to other instruments, a bird’s eye view of high-pressure capabilities available at other beamlines will be surveyed.
This research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
References:
[1]- Boehler R., Guthrie M., Molaison J.J., et. al., High Press. Res., 33, 3, 546 (2013).
[2]- Guguchia Z., Adachi T., Shermadini Z., et. al., Phys. Rev. B, 96, 9, 094515 (2017).
[3]- Hester B.R., dos Santos A.M., Molaison J.J., et. al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139, 38, 13284 (2017).
[4]- Chheda T.D., Mookherjee M., Mainprice D., et. al. , Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 233, 1 (2014).