A comparison of time-of-flight and Larmor modulation neutron powder diffraction at a continuous reactor source

A neutron powder diffraction instrument for application at a continuous reactor source based on time-of-flight (TOF) is compared with an instrument based on Larmor modulation (LM). For instruments with a similar wave-vector resolution (δq/q=4×10−3) it is found that the signal-to-noise ratios in a TOF experiment are generally better when using a wide wavelength neutron spectrum. This is caused by the fact that the noise in a LM experiment comes from the integrated neutron flux scattered in the detector, while in TOF the noise stems only from the intensity scattered into individual time channels.