• Kardjilov, N.; Hilger, A.; Manke, I.; Banhart, J.: CONRAD-2 — The neutron imaging instrument at HZB. Neutron News 25 (2014), p. 23-26

10.1080/10448632.2014.902700

Abstract:
The imaging facility at the BER II reactor was designed in 2004 and constructed in 2005 as an instrument supporting the materials research activities at the former HMI (department SF3). At that time, V7 (CONRAD- 1) was situated at the neutron guide NL-1B (58Nicoated) with a characteristic wavelength of 2.2 Å. The space behind the neutron guide did not allow for a long collimation path since only 5 m of unoccupied space was available. Therefore, the beam size at the sample position was limited to 10 cm × 10 cm. This size is too small for many conventional imaging purposes and was a competitive disadvantage to other existing facilities worldwide. This was one of the reasons to concentrate on the development of novel methods which benefit from the cold neutron beam and the low background at the instrument. Significant development was performed to expand the radiographic and tomographic capabilities of the beamline [1]. New techniques were implemented, including imaging with polarized neutrons [2], Bragg-edge mapping, grating interferometry [3, 4] and high-resolution neutron imaging [5, 6]. These methods were provided to the user community as tools to help addressing scientific problems over a broad range of topics such as superconductivity, materials research, life sciences, cultural heritage and paleontology. Industrial applications including fuel cell research have also been fostered by these new developments that also helped to increase and improve the scientific output of the facility and to attract new users [7].