Triple-axis spectrometry (TAS, three axis spectroscopy) is a technique used in conjunction with inelastic neutron scattering. The instrument is referred to as triple-axis spectrometer (also called TAS). It allows measurement of the scattering function at any point in energy and momentum space physically accessible by the spectrometer.

History

The triple-axis spectrometry method was first developed by Bertram Brockhouse at the National Research Experimental NRX reactor at the Chalk River Laboratories in Canada. The first results from the prototype triple-axis spectrometer were published in January 1955 and the first true triple-axis spectrometer was built in 1956. Bertram Brockhouse shared the 1994 Nobel Prize for Physics for this development, which allowed elementary excitations, such as phonons and magnons, to be observed directly. The Nobel citation was "for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter" and "for the development of neutron spectroscopy".

TAS instruments in current use

FRM-II Forschungsneutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie

Paul Scherrer Institut

Institut Laue-Langevin

CEA/Saclay Laboratoire Léon Brillouin

NIST Center for Neutron Research

ORNL HFIR

ANSTO Bragg Institute

MURR University of Missouri Research Reactor