Experimental characterization of a prototype secondary spectrometer for vertically scattering multiple energy analysis at cold-neutron triple axis spectrometers

A thorough experimental characterization of a multiplexing backend with multiple energy analysis on a cold-neutron triple axis spectrometer (cTAS) is presented. The prototype employs two angular segments (2 theta-segments) each containing five vertically scattering analyzers (energy channels), which simultaneously probe an energy transfer range of 2 meV at the corresponding two scattering angles. The feasibility and strength of such a vertically scattering multiple energy analysis setup is clearly demonstrated. It is shown, that the energy resolution near the elastic line is comparable to the energy resolution of a standard cTAS. The dispersion relation of the antiferromagnetic excitations in MnF2 has been mapped out by performing constant energy transfer maps. These results show that the tested setup is virtually spurion free. In addition, focusing effects due to (mis)matching of the instrumental resolution ellipsoid to the excitation branch are clearly evident. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.