Flow cell for neutron spectroscopy

Abstract

Quasielastic neutron scattering is well-established for the investigation of microscopic diffusion on an atomistic length scale. Recently the possibility of studying the macroscopic flow properties of liquids from inelastically Doppler scattered neutrons was demonstrated. Up to now all such studies were performed with shear cells in plate–plate geometry. In this article we present a new type of flow cell for studies of liquids flowing through a narrow slit. To illustrate the performance of the cell we made measurements on different instruments with two liquids. The diffusion mechanism and constants are determined from the quasielastic scattering. From the inelastic scattering the velocity of the flowing liquid is extracted.