Neutron imaging

The European Spallation Source, ESS, in Lund will - when inaugurated in 2023 – be the most powerful source in the world for neutron research. This opens up a wealth of new possibilities for visualizing e.g. the flow of fluids inside porous materials and devices and the local stresses in large devices. In SOLID we are deeply involved in the construction of the two instruments BEER and ODIN.

We are developing new contrast modalities such as phase contrast imaging, element analysis, diffraction-based imaging, and neutron microscopy as well as the associated 3D reconstruction methods. The high neutron flux enables ground breaking in situ studies of devices under operation. Imaging with neutrons generally expands the length scale upwards of our multiscale approach. Moreover the contrast in the images is very complementary to those of X-ray images, making neutrons favorable for e.g. imaging of embedded water in the soil, lithium in batteries or biological materials within bones.

On the Figure is presented a neutron transmission process in images of BaBrCl:0.1% Eu sample measured at the end of the heating/cooling cycles, when no apparent changes in the sample were observed. The arrows indicate whether the sample was cooled or heated between two consecutive images. 

 It is from a research article In situ diagnostics of the crystal-growth process through neutron imaging: application to scintillators, publicized in Journal of Applied Crystallography, by Anton S. Tremsin, Malgorzata Grazyna Makowska, Didier Perrodin, Tetiana Shalapska, Ivan V. Khodyuk, Pavel Trtik, Pierre Boillat, Sven C. Vogel, Adrian S. Losko, Markus Strobl, Luise Theil Kuhn, Gregory A. Bizarri, Edith D. Bourret-Courchesne.