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Polaris

Experiments on Polaris investigate atomic positions in crystalline materials using powder samples. Its large detector coverage allows for high count rates, which can enable data collection within a few minutes or from very small sample quantities (50 - 100 mg).

Technical information

ModeratorH2O at 316K
Incident wavelength range~0.15 to ~5.4 Å (peak flux at ~0.9 Å)
Incident flight path14.0 m
Incident beam dimensions (max)40 mm (h) x 15 mm (w)
Detector solid angle5.67 ster (coverage from 6.7° - 167° 2θ)
Typical sample volume0.5 - 1 cm3 (but can be as small as ~10 mm3)

Related resources

Sample environment

Typical sample environment equipment:

  • Room temperature sample changer (20 positions)
  • Furnace (room temperature to 1000°C)
  • Pulse Tube CCR (5 K to 300 K)
  • Helium flow cryostat (2 K to 300 K)
    Accepts dilution insert to reach ~0.1 K using copper IVC and sample can.

Software

  • Mantid for data reduction (normalisation and generation of data files for, e.g. GSAS, GSAS-2, Topas, Fullprof).
  • Gudrun for total scattering data analysis.

Recent publications

Instrument reference

All publications and datasets based on experiments using Polaris should cite that the data is collected by DOI: 10.5286/isis.instrument.3713. Experiment DOIs follow the format 10.5286/ISIS.E.RBXXXXXXX, where XXXXXXX is the 7-digit experiment (RB) number and these can be viewed via the Data Gateway.