In this section
SANS2D
SANS2D probes the size, shape and arrangement of structures thousands of times smaller than a human hair, from proteins, viruses and state of the art drug-delivery vehicles to plastics, catalysts, personal care products, gels, liquid crystals and engineering alloys. Its two large movable detectors capture the widest length scale in small-angle scattering at ISIS. This capability is helping researchers tackle challenges in healthcare, energy, manufacturing and sustainability.
Instrument scientists
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Technical information
| Incident wavelengths | 1.75 – 16.5 Å at 10 Hz |
| Momentum transfer, Q | Depends on the sample. Detector distances and detector offsets:
Qmin ∼ 0.0015 Å−1 Qmax ∼ 3 Å−1 |
Instrument parameters
Instrument parameters
| ISIS beamline | E2, viewing the coupled cold moderator |
| Primary flight path | 3ΘcNi super-mirror bender (to remove neutrons with wavelengths less than 1.5 Å), upstream scintillator monitor, overcount protection fast shutter, variable-opening counter-rotating disc chopper, 5 x 2 m moveable evacuated collimation sections (each with choice of Ni guide sections or plain pipe) for variable incident collimation, 5 moveable aperture strips (each with different size apertures), sample position scintillator beam monitor, sample aperture strip, final collimation tube. |
| Sample position | Around 19 m from the moderator, access is from the side and there are no height restrictions within reason. Beam is approximately 1m above the base plate. Crane access is possible, where SWL < 5000 kg. Sample transmission monitor on motorised rack.
Provided with water, helium, and electrical services. |
| Beam size at sample | Defined by sample aperture strip and final collimation. Up to 15 mm diameter is possible, typically an 8 mm diameter is used. Smaller apertures for use with microfluidic/low volume sample environments are available, please discuss with an instrument scientist for further information. |
| Neutron flux at sample | Dependent on collimation, accelerator performance and target type. Typical time-averaged flux is currently estimated to be > 106 cm−2 s−1 (ISIS TS2 at 10 Hz, 40 μA, 800 MeV proton beam, tantalum target.) |
| Secondary flight path | An evacuated tank containing the detectors. |
| Detectors | Two 3He-CF4 filled ORDELA “area” detectors. Active area of each is 96.5 cm x 96.5 cm with 5 mm resolution. The detectors can be moved in the vacuum tank along the beam to vary the sample-to-detector distance between 2 – 12 m. They can also be offset in translation perpendicular to the beam up to 1200 mm, allowing for the extension of the Q-range at a given detector distance. The front detector can also be rotated to face the sample. Detector mapping is under software control. |
Related resources
Sample preparation and sample environment
Software
Recent publications
Instrument reference
All publications and datasets based on experiments using SANS2D should cite that the data is collected by DOI: 10.5286/isis.instrument.2159. 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.