our facilities
The production of high quality and long-living neutron guides requires excellent and modern equipment. We acquired machines and instruments to perform and control the whole process from simulation, design, machining, sputtering, assembly, alignment, and of course testing for quality assurance.
the equipment includes
- 3D-CAD workstations
- Software: Inventor 2009, we also handle most other software (Solid Works, Autocad, etc.)
- two CNC grinding/milling machines
- calibration stage for milling tools
- workshop (lathe, milling and drilling machines for metal work)
- inline sputtering plant Z600B at Klingnau (installed in October 2004)
- contractual access to sputtering plants Z600A and TIPSI at PSI
- own neutron beam line NARZISS at SINQ
- access to neutron reflectometers MORPHEUS and AMOR at SINQ
- access to x-ray diffraction and reflectometry
- access to magnetometry
- access to interferometery for surface characterisation
- optical equipment for alignment of guides and guide elements
- 2 Leica theodolytes
- 1 FARO laser tracker
- high precision dimension measurement instruments
- high accuracy granite alignment tables
center for machining
CNC grinding machine
CNC grinding machine
The core equipment in our center for machining are two high precision CNC grinding machines. Their main features are:
- machining of glasses, metals and other materials
- high precision machining
- specially developed plugs to fix samples
- CNC enables for machining arbitrary geometries, e.g. for non-linear focusing devices
- additional equipment for calibration of machines and tools
Further, regular lathe, milling and drilling machines are installed, e.g. for the preparation of dedicated tools supporting our fabrication processes.
assembly
assembly room
granite tables
The assembly of neutron guides and other optical components is performed in our dedicated laboratory. For assembly and inspections of the assembled components the lab is equipped with:
- 2 work stations for guide assembly and waviness measurements
- various high precision dimension measurement instruments for guide assembly, dimensional inspections, etc.
- instruments are connected to PCs for automated data processing
- various high precision granite tables for assembly
- various specially developed tools for guide assembly, handling, installation and alignment
- laser tracker for 3D inspections and characterisation of components being installed at customers site
- calibration tools to gauge the instruments frequently
- helium leak tester to measure leakage rates of vacuum assemblies, e.g. neutron guides, casings, etc.
sputtering
sputtering room
Z600B
Supermirror coatings at SwissNeutronics are produced using DC magnetron sputtering. The sputtering plant is a retrofit of the Leybold Z600 with extended capabilities. With reference to the identical sputtering plant at PSI (Z600A), which was the origin of the foundation of SwissNeutronics, our sputtering plant is referred to as Z600B
The Z600B system uses a completely oil-free pumping system, an improved transport system for the substrates, and an extended surveillance system that monitors the machine parameters during each production run. This way, plasma instabilities and mechanical instabilities of the plant are immediately spotted. All processes of the deposition are computer controlled starting with the lock in of the substrates into the deposition chamber. This ensures that all depositions occur at identical conditions enabling a high reproducibility of the coatings.
The main features are:
- capabilities for various targets
- extended surveillance system – including a sputter gas monitor
- oil-free pumping system
- large deposition area: with high homogeneity of layer thickness and growth
- processing of deposition completely computer controlled – including data storage of process monitoring
neutron reflectometer NARZISS at SINQ, PSI
NARZISS
neutron guide hall SINQ
polarizer and collimation slits
The instrument NARZISS is dedicated for testing neutron optical components, in particular for reflectivity measurements of neutron mirrors. It was built in close collaboration (as a combined effort) between the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and SwissNeutronics. NARZISS is located in the neutron guide hall of the Swiss Intense Neutron Source SINQ (Quelle = source). A graphite crystal deflects neutrons out of the neutron guide and supplies a monochromatic beam with a wavelength of 0.5 µm to the instrument. A subsequent multilayer wavelength filter suppresses higher harmonics.
NARZISS measures the neutron reflectivity in an angle dispersive mode. The incident, monochromatic beam is collimated by means of two diaphragms. The identical installation exists for the exit beam. This configuration enables unpolarized reflectometry investigations.
Moreover, NARZISS is equipped to perform polarized reflectivity measurements with full polarization analysis. A remanent transmission polarizer and analyzer (mirrors) serve for this purpose. Neutron beam polarization and the polarity of the analyzer are flipped by switching the magnetization of the transmission mirrors with a short magnetic field pulse. During the measurements only a small guide field is applied. An electro magnet at the sample stage provides magnetic fields up to 1000 G. Additionally it is possible to operate the sample magnet at inverse polarity in order to prepare the magnetization of samples to any desired state of their hysteresis.
In summary, NARZISS has the following characteristics and features:
- angle dispersive operation mode
- wavelength: 0.5 nm
- typical collimation: 0.1°
- provisions for beam polarization and polarization analysis - remanent Fe/Si supermirrors in transmission (flipping ratio ≈140)
- sample magnet: -1000 G < H < +1000 G
