March 2025 - HRPD decant progressing
After the last users of HRPD finished their experiment in December, the instrument is being dismantled ahead of the planned demolition of the building to make way for the HRPD-X upgrade. The photograph below shows some of the technical staff involved in the decant.
February 2025 - Super MuSR pulse slicer
The pulse slicer removes the ends of each pulse of muons approaching the spectrometer, reducing the pulse width from ~100ns to 10ns. This increases the magnetic fields that Super-MuSR can measure. The Super MuSR pulse slicer was designed by Akanay Avaroglu (pictured, below left) and is currently being machined by Jamie Searis (pictured, below right)
February 2025 - Partnership with Italy signed
ISIS and the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) have signed a new partnership agreement. This agreement will see the two organisations working together to upgrade the Tosca instrument, as part of Endeavour.
December 2024 - Last users on HRPD
Lexy Gillette and Lemuel Crentsil from the University of Oxford were the last external users of the HRPD instrument before it closes for its major upgrade as part of the Endeavour programme.
HRPD has been part of the ISIS instrument suite from the very beginning and was one of the first ISIS instruments to collect data. In December, a group from the University of Oxford were the last users on the beamline before its demolition and rebuild as part of the HRPD-X project. Lexy Gillette and Lemuel Crentsil are part of Professor Simon Clarke's group at the University of Oxford, studying mixed anion chalcogenides. Neutron experiments enable them to see the position of the oxygen ions within the structure of these materials, as well as study their magnetic properties.
This will be the final user cycle for HRPD, with the demolition of the instrument and its building beginning in the new year. The HRPD-X project will then begin, with the aim of commissioning the instrument towards the end of 2027.
November 2024 - SuperMuSR water return panel
The latest shutdown saw the installation of a new water return panel for the south side muons, which has extr capacity, ready for SuperMuSR.
September 2024 - SuperMuSR detector testing
In September, the SuperMuSR team used the MuSR beamline over a two-week intensive testing period to study the new detector blocks, as well as the electronics and readout system needed to control and measure them. The testing involved Andrea Abba and Francesco Caponio from Nuclear Instruments, who have supplied these control systems. This made them the first official SuperMuSR users on the proposal system!
“We confirmed the electronics were stable, resilient against noise and able to measure muon signals even when in a large magnetic field,” explains Dan Pooley (pictured, right), who is leading on the detector development for SuperMuSR. “The tests were very successful demonstrating that the system will work well when we scale up to the full detector barrel next year.”
They were also able to successfully test the cooling system, and a novel method for ensuring the system is continuously calibrated.
September 2024 – Celebration for completing HRPD-X building design stage
On 17 September, the HRPD-X team got together to celebrate the design of the new building finishing stage three of eight of the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA) plan of work. This means that the layout of the building is now confirmed, and the team can progress with designing the detailed interior. Over 40 ISIS staff have been involved in the process so far, working closely with the STFC Estates team.
August 2024 - SuperMuSR detector design review
The final design review for the detector stave for Super MuSR. This will be followed by testing of a final prototype in September which may inform some small design changes required before manufacture for the whole barrel begins.
July 2024 - UKRI CEO visit
The CEO of UK Research and Innovation, Professor Ottoline Leyser, visited ISIS on 24 July 2024, met the Super MuSR team and saw examples of the new detector technology.
July 2021 - User meetings
In July 2021 a series of user meetings was held to present and discuss the Endeavour Programme projects. Talks describing each project were given by members of the user community - you can see recordings of these talks on the Endeavour Programme User Meetings web page.
