Energy-Loss Neutron Experiments with a Reactor

A large segment of neutron scattering measurements is performed with the cold-filter energy-gain scattering technique. A technique is proposed for deriving the same scattering information using time-of-flight energy-loss scattering technique but with significantly increased counting efficiency. This improvement is achieved using a standard neutron beam chopper and results from the use of the entire thermal spectrum from the reactor instead of 2% of the spectrum as in usual cold beam applications. A careful optimization of the proposed technique should increase the efficiency of data acquisition by at least a factor of 10.