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Muon spectroscopy

Yes
​​​​​​​​​​​​​Muonium atom trapped inside a buckyball
 

Muons provide a complementary probe to neutrons, particularly in the areas of magnetism, superconductivity and charge transport.

Muons can also be thought of as light protons, and studies of their behaviour can shed light on hydrogen behaviour in technologically relevant semiconductors.

The ISIS Muon Facility is unique in Europe, and one of only four muon facilities world-wide available for condensed matter and molecular studies.  

Muons are produced by the ISIS proton beam hitting a thin carbon target 20m upstream of the neutron target.  The muons are then fed to seven experimental areas - three in what is called the ISIS European Muon Facility, and four in the Japanese-run RIKEN-RAL Muon Facility.  

No
No

Muon Spectroscopy Instruments at ISIS

 
  • Argus
    A muon spectrometer for condensed matter and molecular studies.
  • CHRONUS
    CHRONUS is the newest instrument that is part of the ISIS Muon facility
  • EMU
    In addition to neutron production, ISIS is the world's most intense source of pulsed muons for condensed matter research.
  • HiFi
    The high-field muon instrument at ISIS, called HiFi, provides applied longitudinal fields up to 5T
  • MuSR
    The MuSR spectrometer is a general purpose instrument. However, the emphasis of the experimental work conducted is investigating magnetism and superconductivity.

Alternative techniques

 
  • Chip Irradiation
    ISIS offers a facility for rapid testing of high energy neutron effects. ChipIR looks at how silicon microchips respond to cosmic neutron radiation.
  • Imaging
    ISIS instrument IMAT provides a unique combination of neutron imaging and neutron diffraction techniques.
  • Muon spectroscopy
    Muons provide a complementary probe to neutrons, particularly in the areas of magnetism, superconductivity and charge transport.
  • Neutron diffraction
    Neutron diffraction experiments determine the atomic and/or magnetic structure of a material. This technique can be applied to study crystalline solids, gasses, liquids or amorphous materials.
  • Neutron spectroscopy
    Neutron spectroscopy measures the atomic and magnetic motions of atoms.
  • Reflectometry
    Neutron reflectometry is a technique for measuring the structure of thin films.
  • Small angle scattering
    Small angle neutron scattering is a neutron technique able to probe structures at length scales from around 1 nanometre to more than 100 nanometres.
  • Which technique to use?
    Read an overview on the different types of instruments at the facility and the merits of each technique.