Neutron microscope for energy and materials research

Neutron scattering is a powerful suite of scientific tools for determining the structure and dynamics of matter. The technique is widely used in physics, materials science, biology, and engineering. National neutron scattering facilities are billion-dollar 
installations, serving hundreds of scientists per year. While modern light optical 
instruments use a variety of focusing devices (such as lenses and mirrors) and techniques (structural illumination, phase-contrast microscopy, etc), neutron instruments remain in the age of pinhole cameras. Were powerful optical tools available for neutron scattering, they might bring significant, even transformative, improvements to rate-limited neutron methods and enable new science. The MIT/NASA collaboration have recently pioneered the use of axisymmetric focusing mirrors, which have the potential of transforming neutron imaging and scattering instruments from pinhole cameras into microscopes. I will show how such reflecting lens could help increasing the resolution of neutron imaging and scattering instruments. (For a more extended introduction, see: http://www.materials360online.com/newsDetails/42202)