Taipan: a highly versatile neutron spectrometer for Condensed Matter investigations

Abstract

Taipan is the thermal neutron spectrometer located in the reactor beam hall at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering. Originally built as a thermal Triple Axis Spectrometer (TAS), it has been part of the ACNS user program since 2010. Taipan has seen a number of major upgrades including the extension of the dance floor (2014), and the implementation of a new Cu-200 monochromator (2017) which allows Taipan to easily reach incident energies of 200meV [1]. Also, in 2017 a new secondary spectrometer, the Be-filter was installed allowing for rapid measurements of density of states of polycrystalline samples [2]. The TAS and Befilter are interchangeable secondary spectrometers which are used at Taipan with a ratio of 75:25% respectively.

In this presentation, I would like to detail some recent results collected from Taipan with my students and early career researchers which highlight the versatility of this spectrometer for many different condensed matter investigations. Such results include work on low dimensional magnetic materials, magnetic thin films, thermoelectric materials, and magnetic coupling in amorphous materials. I would also like to present some recent Be-filter results on alanine, comparing these results to other spectroscopic measurements using alternate techniques.