Energy-selective neutron transmission imaging at a pulsed source

Energy-selective neutron radiography experiments were carried out at the ISIS pulsed spallation source. This neutron transmission imaging technique combines the hardware used for conventional neutron radiography with the Bragg edge transmission features of time of-flight methods. The main component of the energy-selective radiography set-up was a gated image-intensified CCD camera that viewed a neutron sensitive scintillation screen via a mirror. Energy resolution was obtained via synchronization of the light-intensifier with the pulse structure of the neutron source. It is demonstrated that contrast enhancement of materials can be straightforwardly achieved, and that microstructural features in metal samples can be directly visualized with high spatial resolution by taking advantage of the Bragg edges in the energy dependent neutron cross sections. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.