ESTIA, the polarized neutron reflectometer for small samples at ESS

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Schematic representation of ESTIA and its elliptical guides.

ESTIA is one of the neutron reflectometers for the European Spallation Source ESS, located in Lund, Sweden. The project is led by the Paul Scherrer Institut and ESTIA’s instrument components are being designed, built, and pre-installed at PSI.

ESTIA is a polarized neutron reflectometer designed for the characterization of various surfaces and interfaces on samples of small area down to 1 mm², covering a broad range of scientific subjects including information technology, battery development, spintronics and magnetism, but also life science, soft condensed matter and surface chemistry.

The reduced sample area, and therefore reduced sample amounts, compared to currently existing neutron reflectometers is particularly relevant in the research field of life science, where the availability of biological samples, such as proteins, is often a limitation for the application of neutron scattering techniques such as neutron reflectometry.

The key technology to enable such experiments is a truly focusing neutron guide, developed at PSI, that acts like a lens to project a precise beam onto the sample. This so-called Selene concept leads to high intensity as well as low measurement background.

Further details about the ESTIA project can be found at the link https://www.psi.ch/en/lns/estia.

Publications
  1.  Piscitelli F, Mauri G, Messi F, Anastasopoulos M, Arnold T, Glavic A, et al., "Characterization of the Multi-Blade 10B-based detector at the CRISP reflectometer at ISIS for neutron reflectometry at ESS", Journal of Instrumentation. 2018; 13(5): P05009 (26 pp.), https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/13/05/P05009
  2.  Stahn J, Glavic A, "Efficient polarization analysis for focusing neutron instruments", In: Ioffe A, Gutberlet T, eds. International conference on polarised neutrons for condensed matter investigations (PNCMI 2016). Vol. 862. Journal of physics: conference series. sine loco: IOP Publishing; 2017:012007 (9 pp.), https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/862/1/012007
  3.  Glavic A, Stahn J, Schütz S, "Estia: design of the polarized, small sample reflectometer at ESS", Swiss Neutron News. 2016:6-16
  4.  Stahn J, Glavic A, "Focusing neutron reflectometry: implementation and experience on the TOF-reflectometer Amor", Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment. 2016; 821: 44-54, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2016.03.007
  5.  Stahn J, Korelis P, Filges U, Panzner T, Rantsiou E, Cardenas M, et al., "Estia a focusing reflectometer for small samples based on the Selene guide concept", sine loco: European Spallation Source (ESS); 2014
  6.  Stahn J, Filges U, Panzner T, "Focusing specular neutron reflectometry for small samples", EPJ Applied Physics. 2012; 58(1): 11001, https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2012110295
  7.  Stahn J, Panzner T, Filges U, Marcelot C, Böni P, "Study on a focusing, low-background neutron delivery system", Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment. 2011; 634(1): S12-S16, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2010.06.221
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