Newsletter From AONSAThe Asia-Oceania Neutron Scattering Association

Volume 1, March 8, 2009

President’s comment
By Prof. Mahn Won Kim,President and Professor
AONSA and KAIST

Right Time and Place with Good colleagues
As President of the Asia-Oceania Neutron Scattering
Association (AONSA), I am very pleased to write thepresidential comment on the newly starting AONSA
newsletter.

At The 2nd AONSA Executive Committee Meeting(Taiwan, Feb 22-25, 2009)

The title of this comment is the one we need forachieving goals in the AONSA Article 2, Aims.
AONSA represents neutron scattering communities in
Asia and Oceania which covers more than two thirds ofpopulation and more than one thirds of land on earth. It
is not a simple job to bring this huge diverse
community together. A lot of hurdles and problems
should be overcome to accomplish the goal of oursociety.

Contents¾ Contents & President’s comment…………………………………………………p.1¾

SIKA-the Taiwan contract cold triple-axis
spectrometer at the ANSTO OPAL reactor…………………………………………………p.2

The AONSA goals include: identification of the needsof the neutron scattering community and to promote
optimized use of present and future neutron sources in
the region; stimulation and promotion of neutron
activities and training, particularly opening
opportunities for young scientists and engineers in theregion. The Society provides the software for thesegoals. One of most important software is a goodcommunication among members. I hope that thisnewsletter provides timely and a space to accommodate
this need.

¾

Activities of the Korean Neutron Beam Users’
Association (KNBUA)…………………………………………………p.3¾ Australian Neutron Beam Users Group (ANBUG)…………………………………………………p.4¾Introduction to The Japanese Society for Neutron
Science “JSNS”…………………………………………………p.5

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to theeditor and the people (colleagues) contributing articles
on the AONSA current and future Newsletter.

¾ Indian Neutron Scattering Society………………………………………………p.6 & p.7

Volume 1, Number 2, 20091

Newsletter from AONSASIKA-the Taiwan contract cold triple-axis spectrometer at the ANSTO OPAL reactor
Wen-Hsien Li, Peter Voderwisch, and Chun-Ming Wu
Center for Neutron Beam Applications, National Central University, Jhong-li, Taiwan

The take-off angle of the monochromator covers 30
to 1200, giving a useful wavelength range of 1.74 to5.8 Å or an energy range of 2.4 to 27 meV for theincident beam, when employing the HOPG mono. It
shifts to a slightly higher energy, when Si mono isused. The distance between the monochromator andsample is 2100 mm long to ensure enough space forpolarization or spin-echo devices.

This project is based on an Arrangement signed in2005 between the representative organizations ofTaiwan and Australia governments, in which Taiwan
will construct a high-performance cold triple-axis
spectrometer (TAS) at the OPAL reactor, send 4
scientists to operate the cold-TAS, and obtain 70% of
one instrument time for NSC (National ScienceCouncil) related scientists that may be distributed overthe full set of instruments at OPAL reactor. The
project is indeed a follow-up solution to thecancellation of the TRR-II project to build a reactorbased neutron scattering facility for the community.

SIKA equips with 13 HOPG(002) analyzer crystals,
each of size 20×150 mm2, as shown in Fig. 2. A。
PSD with pixel size at 0.75 of arc is coupled to theanalyzers. These analyzer-detector systems may be
operated in horizontal focusing mode or work
independently. In addition, a single detector group
and a diffraction detector group are also available.
All these components are arranged in a compact
housing, as shown in Fig. 3. Neutron polarization
will become available for the incident and scatteredbeams through 3He polarizers, when such devices
become accessible at ANSTO.

The project started in December 2005, and is targeted
to complete within 4 years. The cold-TAS to beconstructed is named SIKA, after the native
Taiwanese deer termed “Formosan sika deer”. Thesika deer is commonly known as “plum blossom deer”
to reflect the symbolic figures appear on its skin. A
beautiful picture of these deer may be found in
Taiwanese 500-dollar bill. The selection of plumblossom sika deer to appear in the Taiwanese billspeaks itself on its uniqueness and native.
It is known that a triple-axis spectrometer is mainlyfor performing inelastic scattering and obtaininginformation in K-space. The scientific term for SIKA
is then “Spin-polarized Inelastic K-space Analyzer”.
There is a plan, in the second phase of construction, toincorporate spin-echo devices available before andafter the samples. SIKA is the “Spin-echo Inelastic Kspace Analyzer”.

Fig. 1. HOPG mono.

SIKA locates at the Reactor Beam Hall and directly
attaches to the OPAL reactor face, receiving neutrons
from the CG4 beam tube that extracts neutrons fromthe cold source. This position at the Beam Hall has
the advantage to receive all neutrons from the CG4beam tube, but at the expense of higher backgroundcount-rates in comparison to a Guide Hall position.
SIKA equips with double focusing PG and Si
monochromators of size 230×252 mm2. The PG
monochromator consists of 11×11 ZYA quality
HOPG(002) crystals each covers a 20×22 mm2reflection face, as shown in Fig. 1. The Si
monochromator consists of 13 Si(111) crystals eachhaving a reflection face of 17×210 mm2.

Volume 1, Number 2, 2009

Fig.2. SIKA analyzers.

Fig. 3. Analyzer-detector system.

2

Newsletter from AONSA

Activities of the Korean Neutron Beam Users’ Association (KNBUA)HANARO neutron beam facility is a national user
facility and to ask the government to fund it adequately.

KNBUA was founded in 2003 as the neutron beamusers began to swell in Korea. There is a surprisingly
long history of neutron scattering in Korea which dates
back to early 1960’s, but the scattering technique wasreserved to a privileged few since the research reactorsof the time were not powerful enough to attract users.
The construction of the modern research reactor,HANARO, in 1990’s was a huge turn-around. The 30
MW-reactor is a multi-purpose reactor suitable formany applications such as irradiation tests, radioisotope
production and neutron beam research. Most
importantly, however, it boasts one of the highest
neutron beam flux in the world. Many users began
coming to HANARO to perform serious experiments
since the reactor went critical in 1995. They formed auser group to communicate effectively with HANARO
and among themselves, which later became KNBUA.
KNBUA is now a formally incorporated organization.

Thirdly, it promotes neutron science to the government
and the industry by using various channels. After thebrainstorming mentioned above, KNBUA discussedwith the government to launch a policy study on how tooperate and use the facility properly once the CNRF
project is finished. The project is near its end, and it isexpected that the recommendations made in the final
report is followed through by the government andHANARO.
Fourthly, KNBUA promotes education of users byorganizing tutorials, helping the HANARO user
education program and sponsoring student training.
Several students, annually, are sponsored to attend
overseas neutron scattering training courses.
Lastly, KNBUA is actively engaged in international
collaborations by organizing the international meetingsand by communicating with the other societies. The
annual Japan-Korea (or Korea-Japan) meeting is a goodexample. Recently the 9th Japan-Korea Meeting on
Neutron Science was held in Busan from February 9 to
10. It was co-organized with the Japanese Society for
Neutron Science and was hosted by the Pusan National
University and the Korea Atomic Energy ResearchInstitute. The meeting was attended by more than 60
participants. The next meeting will be held in Sendai,
Japan in January, 2010.

The membership of KNBUA saw a significant growth
after the Cold Neutron Research Facility (CNRF)
project launched at HANARO. The project aims tobring a cold neutron capability to HANARO and build
6 cold neutron instruments by 2010. The membershipmore than tripled since 2003 and the total number ofmembers now exceeds 220.
KNBUA, as a whole, is engaged in many activities that
promote neutron science in the country. Firstly, as its
academic activities, it organizes or sponsors neutronscience related workshops. Mostly these workshops areorganized through the 4 topical groups the association
is made of: the elastic group, the inelastic group, thelow-Q group and the radiography group. Some of theexamples of those workshops are the annual Workshop
on X-ray and Neutron Scattering Techniques for
Surface Nano-Characterization, the annual Meeting on
Inelastic Neutron Scattering and many other occasional
workshops members host.

For a long time, Korean science has benefited greatly
from generosities of those colleagues in advancedcountries. As a result, Korea has not only become an
economic powerhouse but also a scientific one.
KNBUA believes now is the time to return thosegenerosities by contributing to the world community,
hence the active engagement in the formation of theAONSA and the hosting of the 1st AONSA Summer
School in Korea last year. KNBUA will continue towork closely with AONSA to promote neutron sciencein the Asia-Oceania region.

Secondly, KNBUA advises HANARO management onvarious operational and user-related issues. Now thatthe completion of the Cold Neutron Facility Project(CNRF) is approaching, one of the most important
issues at HANARO these days is to find the best way tooperate the facility for maximum output. In this regard,
the KNBUA-HANARO joint brainstorming was held in
2007. As a result, the two parties confirmed that theVolume 1,Number 2,20093

Newsletter from AONSAAustralian Neutron Beam Users Group (ANBUG)The ANBUG annual general meeting was held inDecember 2008 at ANSTO as part of the Annual user
meeting and symposium. As in previous years theuser meeting received considerable support from theAustralian Institute of Nuclear Science andTechnology (AINSE). At the end of the 2008 we had~353 members, with a diverse range of scientificinterest and country of origin.
Highlights during the year were:

ANBUG Awards. The 2008 award forLifetime Contribution to Neutron Science
was awarded to Dr Margaret Elcombe, whohas given over 40 years of service to theAustralian neutron scattering community.
As noted in her citation Margaret has been amentor and teacher to generations ofAustralian Neutron Scatters. Although she
has now “retired” from ANSTO she remains
a common site around the OPAL reactor.

1. After a 10 month shutdown OPAL returned to fullpower in May.
2. Awarding of operating licenses to six of theinstruments. Already a number of scientificpublications have resulted from experiments
undertaken at the instruments.
3. Award of a 5 year grant (Aus$1,000,000) by theAustralian Research Council that gives Australian
researchers access to specialized instruments at ISIS inthe UK. This grant was successfully obtained by aconsortium of Universities, AINSE and ANSTO.

Dr Margarte Elcombe receiving her award
from ANBUG president Professor Craig
Buckley at the ANBUG AGM.

Neutron School. ANBUG together with ANSTO runan extremely successful neutron school that wasattended by 23 participants from Australia andoverseas. In addition to a full social program all of theparticipants were able to perform real experiments on
the instruments, which aided greatly theirunderstanding. It is planned to run another neutron
school in August 2009 under the auspices of AONSA.

ANBUG Committee 2009-2010.
At the conclusion of the AGM the results ofthe electron for ANBUG office bearers wasannounced the in-coming Committee is.
President: Brendan Kennedy (Sydney)
Vice President:Chris Ling (Sydney)
Past President:Craig Buckley (Curtin)
General Members:
Darren Goossens (ANU);James Hester (ANSTO);
Duncan McGillivray (Auckland);Annemieke Mulders (Curtin);
Andrew Nelson (ANSTO).

Volume 1, Number 2, 20094

Newsletter from AONSAIntroduction to The Japanese Society for Neutron Science “JSNS”

optics, sources, and so on. The attachedphotograph shows the scene of session on the last
annual meeting held at Nagoya University(December 1 and 2, 2008).

First of all, we would like to express congratulations
for the establishment of AONSA. All the members ofthe Japanese Society for Neutron Science (JSNS) arepleasure to participate in the association. In this first
AONSA newsletter, we would like to introduce ourJSNS and the current status of the neutron science inJapan.
The first Japanese research reactor JRR-1 was built at
1957 in Japan Atomic Energy Research Agency(JAERI, reorganized at 2005 into Japan Atomic
Energy Agency), and JRR-2 and JRR-3 opened thestep for common usage of neutron for research use.
The power of JRR-3 was increased to 20 MW at 1990,
and it has been one of the world leading neutron
source reactors. In addition, we have used the research
reactor KUR of Kyoto University (Kumatori, Osaka)from 1964, and the pioneering pulsed neutron facility
KENS at KEK (High Energy Accelerator Research
Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki) from 1980 to 2006.
The user programs of these neutron sources have been
operated by JAEA, Institute for Solid State Physics(Univ. of Tokyo), Kyoto University, Tohoku
University, and KEK. During the discussion of theplan to build a next generation pulsed neutron facility,
the forerunner association for the Japanese neutron
users were founded at 1993, which was reorganized
into JSNS on April 2001.
On December 2008, theoperationofstrong
pulsed-neutron source at
MLF of J-PARC wasstarted (It is positioned asa public property thatbelongstotheinternational community,and you are now getting a chance to access there!).
The construction of MLF is a result of the activity ofneutron science community, and then the role of JSNS
will be more important in determination of thedirection of neutron science not only in Japan but alsoin Asia and Oceania, in order to extend the field of
neutron science and to exchange the research andtechnical information.

In addition, for exchanging information of science,
status of the neutron facilities etc., we distributethe bulletin “Hamon” (the cover shown in thefollowing figure) four times a year, the mailing list
to the members, and the web site. The neutronschool has also been held for educating young
researchers and students as well as for public
relations. Based on these activities, JSNS will playroles in the activities of AONSA.

From now on JSNS would like to be a good partner
in AONSA.

The present number of members joining in JSNS isaround 530, and more than 30 companies andassociations are supporting members. The annual
meeting of JSNS has been held to present the current
researches of various scientific subjects covering
materials science, neutron instrumental development,
Volume 1,Number 2,2009(by Kazuaki Iwasa, Committee chairman for
promotion of intercommunication in JSNS)

5Newsletter from AONSA

Indian Neutron Scattering Society*science. The present-day facilities include,
single-crystal and powder diffractometers,
polarization
analysis
spectrometer,
Hi-Q
diffractometer, triple-axis & filter-detector
spectrometers,
quasi-elastic
scattering
spectrometer (all installed in the reactor hall), andtwo small-angle scattering instruments, spin-echo
spectrometer and reflectometer (in the guide-tubelaboratory). An instrument for residual stressanalysis is under development.AA

The Indian NeutronScatteringSociety(INSS) was formed on
11 June 2008 during ameeting of neutron
users at Mumbai withan objective to promote
the research and development activities ofneutron-scattering science and applications. TheSociety would have members from bothacademic institutions and industry. A managing
committee of INSS has been formed withmembers from several universities (at Varanasi,Chandigarh, Goa and Delhi) and nationalinstitutions (BARC, TIFR, IITM, and UGCDAE-CSR) representing various users and thespectrum of neutron scattering activities. At
present INSS consists of more than 60 members
from universities and institutions spread all overthe country. Two members of INSS are now inthe executive committee of the Asia-Oceania
Neutron Scattering Association (AONSA), andone member is an observer.

The National Facility is regularly utilized incollaboration with about 200 users from various
universities and other academic institutions.
Support for the collaborations is available from
University Grants Commission- Department ofAtomic Energy-Consortium for Scientific
Research (UGC-DAE-CSR), Board of Researchin Nuclear Sciences (BRNS) and other agencies
in India. BARC and UGC-DAE-CSR havejointly organized many Workshops on Neutrons
as Probes of Condensed Matter. The Society isplanning to contribute towards similar activities
in future. Recently UGC-DAE-CSR organized an“Awareness workshop” at Charotar Institute ofApplied Sciences, Changa, Anand, Gujarat,
during Jan 8-9, 2009. Among others, topics like
1) basics of neutron scattering, 2) neutron
diffraction, 3) Rietveld refinement, 4) neutron

A National Facility for Neutron Beam Research(NFNBR) has been operating for nearly twodecades at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre forbasic and applied research in condensed matter

ResidualStressAnalysis

Instrument layout at NFNBR, Dhruva, BARC, Trombay, INDIAVolume 1, Number 2, 20096

Newsletter from AONSA

scattering facilities in India and abroad werecovered. About 40 teachers from various
universities/institutions of the Gujarat state ofIndia attended the workshop.
The International symposium on neutron
scattering (with a three-day workshop precedingit) held at Mumbai, during Jan 15-18, 2008 was agreat success. This symposium was attended bymore than 200 participants from 15 countries
including several world leaders from laboratories
in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan,Russia, Switzerland, UK, USA, and others. Manydignitaries including some pioneers of theneutron scattering activity in India graced theoccasion and participated in the deliberations. Avisit was organized to the neutron scattering
facility at the Dhruva reactor. The proceedings ofthe symposium are now published (Pramana-J.
Phys., October & November issues of 2008) andavailable at :http://www.ias.ac.in/pramana/v71/v71no4.htm &http://www.ias.ac.in/pramana/v71/v71no5.htm.
*Email: neutron@barc.gov.in

AONSA Office
Many thanks to
the writers and editors of this issueProf. Masatoshi ARAI
Secretary
Ayako SATOAdministrative Assistant

Office address:
Neutron Science Section,
Materials & Life Science Facility
Division,
J-PARC Center,JAPAN ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY,
2-4 Shirakata-Shirane, Tokai
Ibaraki, JAPAN, 319-1195
Phone: +81-29-284-3752
FAX: +81-29-284-3889

For more information: http://jparc.jp/MatLife/en/AONSA/index.ht
mlVolume 1, Number 2, 20097

Newsletter from AONSA