ILL Grenoble right, with ESRF left 1

Eberhard Lehmann, one of the fathers of neutron imaging... once said: "Alan Hewat may know something about Neutron Diffraction - …but he knows nothing about Neutron Imaging" 2

Thesis on Lattice Dynamics High Flux Australian Reactor It’s True ! Thesis on Lattice Dynamics HIFAR in 1958 High Flux Australian Reactor Alan Hewat in 1961 A student at HIFAR 3

2005 - A 16 CCD Neutron Laue Camera ICNS Sydney, Physica B (2006) 385–386 pp 979–984 CYCLOPS – a reciprocal-space explorer Bachir Ouladdiaf, John Archer, John Allibon, Philippe Decarpentrie, Marie-Helene Lemee-Cailleau, Juan Rodrıguez, Alan Hewat, Scott York, Daniel Brau and Garry J. McIntyre J. Appl. Cryst. (2011) 44, 392–397 OPAL in 2006 High Flux Australian Reactor Alan Hewat in 2005 At ICNS Sydney Still looks the same… cf 4-CCD camera at FRM-2 (Schillinger) FALCON at HZB-Berlin (Raventos PSI) 4

CYCLOPS – 16 CCD reciprocal-space explorer Physica B (2006) 385–386 and J. Appl. Cryst. (2011) 44, 392–397

CYCLOPS – 16 CCD reciprocal-space explorer John Allibon, Bachir Ouladdiaf and Silvia Capelli

2007 – simple CCD cameras for sample alignment at ILL 2007 Alan Hewat and Peter Falus ILL Annual Report - a small neutron CCD camera 7

2018 – simple CCD & CMOS cameras for sample alignment Sony CCD Sony CMOS We sold such cameras to many labs. including PSI Switzerland 8

Hundreds of small NeutronOptics cameras in the world But what about neutron IMAGING? 9

In 2008 – I was impressed by EMCCD publicity A slow learner… In 2008 – I was impressed by EMCCD publicity EMCCD low-light conditions vs 1.3 Megapixel Interline CCD 10

NeutronOptics EMCCD Laue-camera (2007) A slow learner… NeutronOptics EMCCD Laue-camera (2007) Disappointed 11

Electron-Multiplying CCD (EMCCD), but… A slow learner… Electron-Multiplying CCD (EMCCD), but… • The scintillator already provides ~160,000 photons for 1 neutron • Further multiplication reduces Dynamic Range Disappointed that publicity wasn’t so relevant for neutrons • EMCCD is good for high frame rates with low light levels • But also has to compete with newer sCMOS detectors 12

A slow learner… 5 years later In 2012 – I was impressed by sCMOS publicity sCMOS low-light conditions vs 1.4 Megapixel Interline CCD 13

Scientific CMOS (sCMOS) Very low read noise, high frame rates, but… A slow learner… Scientific CMOS (sCMOS) Very low read noise, high frame rates, but… Publicity applies to fast imaging with light (10 msec exposures) Only read noise is shown, thermal noise can be more important Disappointed that publicity wasn’t so relevant for neutrons • sCMOS is good if you need high frame rates • But again, the dynamic range is smaller than with a CCD 14

…we’re asked to quote to precise specifications… 15

Specifications copied from publicity for iKon-L 936 16

Ikon-L936 (e2V CCD42-40) is a good camera, BUT… Not really true Specifications are NOT all obtained SIMULTANEOUSLY 17

From the detailed Ikon-L936 data sheet Read Noise is 31.5 e- at a frame rate of 0.95 fps (5 MHz) or 70.3 e- at "high capacity" output Read Noise is 2.9 e- only at a frame rate of 0.01 fps (50 kHz) 5 MHz output is called "Visualisation Mode“ – usually 3 MHz The iKon-L 936 is a "slow scan" CCD camera like the cameras used by NeutronOptics. But is it better ? 18

A modest Sony 1” CCD can cover much of neutron imaging …for a more modest price 19

Sony 1” Read noise and Dark Current is lower Well depth = number of electrons stored / pixel (large because of large pixels) Well depth is necessary for high dynamic range Dynamic range = Well Depth / Total Noise Well depth reduces electron overflow (blooming) This Full Frame CCD has no “anti-blooming” structure Importance of Well Depth exaggerated ? cf sCMOS Usually you can adjust exposure time 20

A modest Sony 1” CCD can cover much of neutron imaging 250x200 Neutron & X-ray camera Macro camera Laue Camera 220mm 145mm 80mm 85mm 100 120 70 These instruments use this 1” CCD, PSI/RC-TriTec scintillators (Grünzweig, Walfort) 21

1.3MW Triga reactor at the Thai Institute for Nuclear Technology (10s) Dr. Khaweerat Sasiphan, TINT 22

Golden Engineering 350 kVp portable pulsed x-ray generator Hard x-ray imaging of thick objects - up to 45 mm steel 50 x 50 nano-second pulses Prof. Jeffrey King, Colorado School of Mines NeutronOptics camera with x-ray scintillator for imaging of objects up to 45 mm steel 23

100kW Triga reactor neutron image from our 1” CCD camera Prof. Robert Zboray PSU 24

X-ray image from our 1” CCD camera Prof. Robert Zboray PSU 25

Macro-camera for very high resolution Inspired by Kardjilov’s macro neutron camera See also the Neutron Microscope at PSI (Trtik) Fibre-optics taper neutron imaging at PSI (Morgano) Camera uses commercial components 1:1 Field-Of-View equal to size of CCD (or larger) Resolution limited only by scintillator and beam Lens-coupled is more flexible but has lower efficiency 26

Imaging, but also Diffraction 1” CCD Laue diffraction camera Replaces Image-Plate and Polaroid Film Laue cameras Efficiency is similar, but immediate read-out of pattern Requires very high efficiency and low noise for 300s 27

X-ray backscattering from single 1” CCD Laue camera Si - Dean Hudek (Brown University) Sm2Fe17 - W. Donner (TU Darmstad) These images obtained in only 2-3 minutes with an ordinary lab. X-ray generator 28

Diffraction and Imaging with Neutrons and X-rays Promote the wider use of Neutron & X-ray Imaging… … by providing competitive yet inexpensive cameras Thank you for your attention… 29