Versatility of advanced KINKEN triple-axis neutron spectrometer, AKANE

Abstract AKANE is a thermal-neutron triple-axis spectrometer, which has been upgraded recently from the former double-axis neutron diffractometer. One of characteristic features of AKANE is the coupling of a monochromator of Ge (3 1 1) and an analyzer of PG (0 0 2). The incident neutron energy is fixed to 20 meV, which is intermediate between typical PG-filtered energies of 14.7 meV and 30.5 meV. Below ω ∼ 5 meV , the energy resolution is calculated to be medium and intermediate between those from PG-monochromator configurations. Surprisingly, inelastic-scattering signals are observable with reasonable statistics up to ω ∼ 10 meV , indicating validity of Ge monochromators for research on low-energy excitations in condensed matter physics.