J-PARC has turned over its engine to operate for user programmes. Although the accelerator power is 1/10 of its goal, 1MW, promising outputs are coming out from instruments. Now in the Material Life Science Facility, 15 instruments have been funded and 8 out of them are in operational stage. Cutting edge technology of target system and instruments are performing well as we expected in the designing stage.

The 4D Space Access Neutron Spectrometer (4SEASONS) is a high-intensity Fermi-chopper spectrometer. It is intended to provide high counting rate for thermal neutrons with medium resolution (ΔE/E_i~6% at E=0) to efficiently collect weak inelastic signals from novel spin and lattice dynamics especially in high-T_c superconductors and related materials. To achieve this goal, the spectrometer equips advanced instrumental design such as an elliptic-shaped converging neutron guide coated with high-Q_c (m=3–4) supermirror, and long-length (2.5m) ³He position sensitive detectors (PSDs) arranged cylindrically inside the vacuum scattering chamber. Furthermore, the spectrometer is ready for multi-incident-energy measurements by the repetition rate multiplication method, which greatly improves the measurement efficiency.

The near backscattering Si crystal analyzer spectrometer DNA is planning and partially beginning the construction at the pulsed neutron source of the Material and Life Science Facility (MLF), J-PARC. The expected energy resolution and the dynamic range of the Si(111) crystal analyzer are about 1 micro-eV and +45/- 25 micro-eV, respectively.

It is planning to complete the construction of DNA spectrometer in the mid of FY2011, and then to do a commissioning for about 6 months.

Ibaraki Prefectural Government together with Ibaraki University and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has almost finished constructing a time-of-flight (TOF) neutron diffractometer for biological macromolecules for industrial use at BL03 in MLF in J-PARC, IBARAKI Biological Crystal Diffractometer (iBIX). Since 2009, Ibaraki University has been asked to operate this machine in order for users to do experiment by Ibaraki Prefecture. The diffractometer is designed to cover sample crystals which have their cell edges up to around 150 Å. It is expected to measure more than 100 samples per year if they have 2 mm³ in crystal volume, and to measure even around 0.1 mm³ in crystal volume of biological samples. The efficiency of iBIX is also expected about 100 times larger than those of the present high performance diffractometers at JRR-3 in JAEA when 1MW power realizes in J-PARC. Since this May, 14 detector units have been set. By the end of fiscal year 2009, the basic part of data reduction software will be finished and an equipment blowing low temperature gas to the sample will be installed with the cooperation of JAEA.

Accurate nuclear data of long-lived fission products (LLFPs) and minor actinides (MAs) are necessary to estimate the production and transmutation rates of LLFPs and MAs for the advanced reactor systems such as fast reactors and the accelerator driven systems. For the neutron capture cross section measurements, an instrument, Neutron Nucleus Reaction Instrument (NNRI) has been installed. As a major detector system, a large solid-angle Ge spectrometer is used for the prompt γ measurements with a high accuracy. Measurements on MAs and LLFPs are being performed. NNRI will be effectively used for not only MA and LLFP measurements but also generally capture cross section measurements of other elements.

A new beamline for a fundamental physics experiment has been built at the BL05 port in the Materials and Life Science Facility (MLF) in Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), and the first neutron beam was delivered on December 9th, 2008. This beamline is designed using novel techniques of neutron optics, and it is termed “Neutron Optics and Physics (NOP)." The beam from the moderator is deflected by multi-channel supermirrors and split into three branches for individual experiments. Physics with cold neutrons at the NOP beamline is discussed.

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.

On May 30 2008, the first pulsed-neutron beam from JSNS was successfully observed at NOBORU (BL10). Since then, we have studied neutronic performance of JSNS, such as neutron spectral intensity, pulse shape of cold neutrons and luminosity distribution on the moderator surface. Very good agreements, typically 20 % in absolute values, between the measured and predicted quantities were confirmed with suggesting adequacy of design calculations of JSNS. NOBORU has been also served as a test beam port for users. A variety of leading-edge experiments with featuring high-intensity pulsed neutrons, such as energy-selective imaging, development of neutron devices, prompt gamma-ray analysis, diffraction under high magnetic field, spin-echo experiment, soft error of semi-conductors and calibration field, have been launched.

The new beamline dedicated to high-pressure studies, PLANET is now being constructed at BL11 in MLF/J-PARC. The design concept and the current construction state are introduced. The most characteristic feature of this beamline is a huge press with the maximum load of 1500ton. The coupling this with the state of the art neuron techniques reveals hydrogen positions and its effects on the physical properties of materials and minerals at tens of gigapascals and a few thousand Kelvins. This opens the door to explore deep interior of the hydrous Earth and Planets.

The commissioning of High Resolution Chopper spectrometer (HRC) constructed in J-PARC, MLF has commenced. The main beam line components are installed and other utilities are equipped. Remaining a couple of preparation, we now get started tunings of machine performance and test experiments.

AMATERAS is a cold-neutron disk-chopper spectrometer newly constructed in Materials and Life Science Facility in J-PARC. By combination of high-peak intensity from a H₂-coupled moderator source and high-speed disk-choppers for both pulse shaping and monochromating, the spectrometer is designed to realize both high-resolution (ΔE/E_i=1%@E_i=20meV) and high-intensity with high flexibility in cold-neutron region. Construction of AMATERAS has been completed in this spring and the spectrometer is now in commissioning phase.

The technique of small-angle neutron scattering has been used to analyze structures of size between about 1nm and 10μm in materials and life science. This article introduces the development of the smaller-angle neutron scattering instrument “TAIKAN” of MLF/J-PARC, which will provide opportunity for efficient structure analysis with high spatial- and time-resolution.

Neutron reflectometry is one of the powerful tools to investigate surface and interfacial structures of materials in the spatial range from nm to sub-μm. Because hydrogen and deuterium atoms have different scattering length for neutrons, this method can distinguish deuterated materials from normal ones in the mixture of soft-condensed matters, such as polymer blends, bio-mimic membranes, and so on. Furthermore, high transmissivity of neutrons to materials enables us to probe deeply-buried interfaces such as solid/liquid interfaces in a non-destructive way. In J-PARC, we have transferred an old reflectometer ARISA from the KENS facility in KEK Tsukuba campus to the BL16 beam port at J-PARC/MLF viewing a coupled liquid hydrogen moderator, and started to accept the neutron beam on a new reflectometer ARISA-II in December, 2008. Although the beam intensity of ARISA-II was about ten times more than that of ARISA, background was high because of frame overlap. In this summer, we have installed disk chopper as a tail cutter, mirror holder to control beam path, iron collimator and beam duct for background suppression. Thanks to the upgrades, S/N ratio is drastically improved and the observable reflectivity reaches 10^-7.

The construction of the Engineering Materials Diffractometer, TAKUMI in J-PARC has been finished on March 2009, and the commissioning has been started from September 2008 being parallel with the final stage of the construction. In the commissioning, after checking the validity and the stability of the detectors and the data acquisition system, powder diffraction data of an austenitic steel alloy with 10 mm diameter without beam collimation (high intensity mode) was measured, and the resolution Δd/d of 0.4% was confirmed, as designed. Further commissioning was done also with 2 mm diameter of annealed piano wire with combination of beam collimation (high resolution mode), and the resolution Δd/d of less than 0.2% was confirmed to be achieved. TAKUMI adopted an event mode data recording method. It was found that this recording method is very useful to manipulate data as we like, for instance, detector range, time of flight binning width and time resolved data, even the experiment has been finished.

Here we describe a neutron powder diffractometer, iMATERIA, at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility in J-PARC. iMATERIA (IBARAKI Materials Design Diffractometer) has been constructed to be a high throughput versatile diffractometer enabling materials scientists to use it like a chemical analytical instrument in their material development processes. Typical measuring time to obtain 'Rietveld-quality' data is several minutes for the sample size of laboratory X-ray diffractometer. iMATERIA is already open for academic and industrial users.

Characteristic performance of high-intensity total diffractometer NOVA of MLF J-PARC is wide-Q range measurements with the highest neutron intensity by JSNS pulsed neutron source. The NOVA covers very wide research fields in term of nano-structure and/or disordered materials. Hydrogen absorption mechanism in hydrogen storage materials will be intensively investigated by NOVA.

Operation of the J-PARC pulsed neutron facility has started in 2008, and its performance has been demonstrated as expected. The facility is now operating at 100 kW beam power, and has succeeded a 300 kW test operation. According to the up-to-dated schedule, the beam power will reach to 1MW within 5-6 years after overcoming various challenges in accelerator and neutron source technologies.

Neutron diffraction method has great advantages, allowing us to determine the residual stress deep within the bulk materials and components nondestructively. This article reviews the importance of the stress-free lattice spacing to improve the accuracy of the neutron residual stress measurement. And also the recent examples of the application of the neutron residual stress measurement to the mechanical and structural components are introduced.

Oil and water are naturally separated with each other due to large interfacial tension between them. By adding surfactants involving hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts, the mixtures accommodate water and oil with intervening surfactant layers. When the characteristic size of those mixtures is below 100 nm, the mixtures are transparent and called microemulsion. The system forms preferred aggregation geometries such as globular or cylindrical micelles, bicontinuous, lamellar, or hexagonal structure. Dynamical properties of the surfactant layers between oil and water play an important role in the phase behavior of these structures. Since neutron spin echo (NSE) method covers suitable space and time ranges, much attention has been paid to microemulsion system in order to observe thermal fluctuations of surfactant layers. In this review, we explain the analysis of NSE results in a microemulsion system.

Principles and characteristics of various gaseous position-sensitive neutron detectors are introduced in conjunction with popular gaseous position-sensitive neutron detectors.