title: Note: One order of magnitude better signal-to-noise ratio for neutron backscattering.
abstract: We report on a new achievement which allows increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of reactor backscattering spectrometers by more than one order of magnitude by sacrificing at most 50% of the count rate. This method was recently tested on the backscattering instrument IN16B at ILL, where signal-to-noise ratios of more than 10 000 for standard samples and up to 40 000 for strong scatterers were measured with only 37% reduction in intensity. The described method is applicable at any reactor backscattering spectrometer equipped with a so-called background chopper which can optionally function as a pulse suppression chopper and presents a major advancement for high energy resolution spectroscopy with neutrons.
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Physics and Technology, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Henkestrasse 91, 91052 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.identifier: 0000000160697573
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Appel
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue-Langevin, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Frick