Status report of BL08 SuperHRPD

Abstract

At the end of May in 2008, the first neutron was produced successfully from a spallation neutron source in Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). High resolution Bragg reflections were obtained using the Sirius diffractometer chamber at Super High Resolution Powder Diffractometer (SuperHRPD) beam line at Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF). We started up quickly by using the existing Sirius chamber, and had succeeded in achieving resolution as Δd/d = 0.035%, the best among all the entire neutron powder diffractometers in the world. About 300 detectors had been installed in the backward detector bank, and several standard samples had been measured. Simultaneously, we were carrying out basic study to design and construct a new SuperHRPD chamber, and the Sirius chamber had been exchanged for new one in summer of 2009. In the design of a new chamber, a detector solid angle is increased, d-range / Q-range is expanded, and also has options of high-intensity mode and high-resolution mode with incident collimations.