title: A new apparatus design for high temperature (up to 950°C) quasi-elastic neutron scattering in a controlled gaseous environment.
abstract: A design for a sample cell system suitable for high temperature Quasi-Elastic Neutron Scattering (QENS) experiments is presented. The apparatus was developed at the Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge National Lab where it is currently in use. The design provides a special sample cell environment under controlled humid or dry gas flow over a wide range of temperature up to 950 °C. Using such a cell, chemical, dynamical, and physical changes can be studied in situ under various operating conditions. While the cell combined with portable automated gas environment system is especially useful for in situ studies of microscopic dynamics under operational conditions that are similar to those of solid oxide fuel cells, it can additionally be used to study a wide variety of materials, such as high temperature proton conductors. The cell can also be used in many different neutron experiments when a suitable sample holder material is selected. The sample cell system has recently been used to reveal fast dynamic processes in quasi-elastic neutron scattering experiments, which standard probes (such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy) could not detect. In this work, we outline the design of the sample cell system and present results demonstrating its abilities in high temperature QENS experiments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1200, USA.
authors.forename: Amal
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: al-Wahish
authors.affiliation: Instrument and Source Design Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37861-6475, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Armitage
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Astronomy and Geology, Berry College, Mount Berry, Georgia 30149, USA.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: al-Binni
authors.affiliation: Instrument and Source Design Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37861-6475, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: Instrument and Source Design Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37861-6475, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mills
authors.affiliation: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS), Outstation at Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), and Chemical and Engineering Materials Division, Neutron Sciences Directorate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6473, USA.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jalarvo
authors.affiliation: Instrument and Source Design Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37861-6475, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Santodonato
authors.affiliation: Instrument and Source Design Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37861-6475, USA.
authors.forename: K W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Herwig
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1200, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mandrus