MERLIN, a new high count rate spectrometer at ISIS

MERLIN is designed to be a high intensity, medium energy resolution spectrometer. As such, it will complement the high-resolution MAPS spectrometer at ISIS. MERLIN will utilise all the latest advances in technology with a supermirror guide to enhance flux as well as 3m long position-sensitive detectors in a vacuum making it ideal for single-crystal users. The detector bank will cover a massive pi steradians of solid angle with an angular range from -45 degrees to + 135 degrees degrees in the horizontal plane and +/- 30 degrees degrees in the vertical plane. This will allow large swathes of Q,omega space to be accessed in a single run. The instrument will be ready for commissioning in February 2006. This paper presents details of design and performance of this new instrument. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.