The micro-setup for neutron imaging: A major step forward to improve the spatial resolution

To overcome present limitations of the spatial resolution in neutron imaging a newly designed setup was realized at the ICON facility [G. Kühne et al., ICON—the new facility for cold neutron imaging at the Swiss spallation neutron source SINQ, Swiss Neutron News 28 (December 2005), pp. 20–29, 〈http://sgn.web.psi.ch/sgn/snn/snn_28.pdf〉], which is installed at the cold neutron beam line 52 at the Swiss spallation neutron source SINQ [G.S. Bauer, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 463 (2001) 505] since 2005.It was found by dedicated performance measurements, that the inherent spatial resolution of this locally fixed neutron imaging device is better than 50 μm, corresponding to 20 line pairs/mm in spatial frequency at 10% of the modulation transfer function (MTF). Therefore, the system has the potential to perform neutron tomography investigations with a resolution better than that previously achieved.This article describes the design features, details of the installation and the results from first test measurements. It gives an outlook for the further potential of this technique in both radiography and tomography applications.