Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 30, 2026

Neutron Radiography and Computed Tomography of Biological Systems at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor
Published on: May 7, 2021
Note: One order of magnitude better signal-to-noise ratio for neutron backscattering
Markus Appel1, Bernhard Frick2
1Center for Medical Physics and Technology, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Henkestrasse 91, 91052 Erlangen, Germany.
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.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Spin State Population Distribution
NMR Spectrometers: Resolution and Error Correction
Interpreting ¹H NMR Signal Splitting: The (n + 1) Rule
¹³C NMR: ¹H–¹³C Decoupling
A broadband decoupling technique is used to simplify these complex, sometimes overlapping, signals. Broadband decoupling relies on a...
Nuclear Overhauser Enhancement (NOE)
Other Nuclides: 31P, 19F, 15N NMR
While fluorine-19 and phosphorous-31 have high natural abundances (100%) and positive gyromagnetic ratios, nitrogen-15 has a low natural abundance and a negative gyromagnetic ratio. However, nitrogen-15 is still preferred over nitrogen-14 (which has a high...

