Atomic pair distribution function analysis from the ARCS chopper spectrometer at the Spallation Neutron Source

Neutron powder-diffraction-based atomic pair distribution functions (PDFs) are reported from the new wide-angular-range chopper spectrometer ARCS at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The spectrometer was run in white-beam mode with no Fermi chopper. The PDF patterns of Ni and Al2O3 were refined using the PDFfit method and the results compared with data collected at the NPDF diffractometer at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The resulting fits are of high quality, demonstrating that quantitatively reliable powder diffraction data can be obtained from ARCS when operated in this configuration.