The CEA and the CNRS have launched an initiative to design a new neutron source using low-energy proton accelerators, the ICONE project. The objective is to build a facility that will offer an instrumental suite of about ten spectrometers available to the French and European scientific community. The project is currently in the Preliminary Design phase, with the aim of refining as much as possible all technical aspects.
We are proposing a PhD thesis on the modeling and development of a new neutron scattering spectrometer for measuring textures and stresses in materials. This technique makes it possible to probe residual stresses in materials after machining, heat treatment, and/or use, and to measure the crystallographic anisotropy of alloys to exploit the induced mechanical properties.
Part of the work will take advantage of the start-up of the DREAM and MAGIC spectrometers at ESS in Sweden, in which the LLB participated in the construction, so that the candidate can become familiar with time-of-flight neutron scattering techniques (measurements and data analysis).
In the second part of this work, we propose to implement statistical modulation techniques for the construction of an instrument, CONTEXT, on ICONE, which will allow to best exploit the potential of ICONE's long pulses. The objective will be to create a digital twin of the future instrument using various Monte Carlo simulation tools.