Calibration and absolute normalization procedure of a new Deep Inelastic Neutron Scattering spectrometer

We describe the calibration process of a new Deep Inelastic Neutron Scattering (DINS) spectrometer, recently implemented at the Bariloche Electron LINAC (Argentina), consisting in the determination of the incident neutron spectrum, dead-time and electronic delay of the data acquisition line, and detector bank efficiency. For this purpose, samples of lead, polyethylene and graphite of different sizes were employed. Their measured spectra were corrected by multiple scattering, attenuation and detector efficiency effects, by means of an ad hoc Monte Carlo code. We show that the corrected spectra are correctly scaled with respect to the scattering power of the tested materials within a 2% of experimental error, thus allowing us to define an experimental constant that links the arbitrary experimental scale (number of recorded counts per monitor counts) with the involved cross-sections. The present work also serves to analyze the existence of possible sources of systematic errors.