Powder diffraction on a long-pulse spallation source

Monte Carlo simulations have been performed for a time-of-flight monochromator powder diffractometer housed on a thermal moderator at a Long-Pulse Spallation Source and for a conventional crystal monochromator instrument on a thermal moderator of a reactor source of four times the time-averaged flux. By designing the time-of-flight instrument to utilise the inherent advantages of the technique whilst optimising to the peak performance of the crystal monochromator case, the performance of the TOF-instrument is shown to exceed that of the reactor-based diffractometer, despite the lower time-averaged flux of the source. Further, a simple extrapolation of the results obtained for the pulsed-source shows that such a TOF diffractometer would out-perform a conventional instrument if both were to be housed on the same reactor.