The NFO workshop is organized by the Paul Scherrer Institute in collaboration with the European Spallation Source as part of the HighNESS (Development of High Intensity Neutron Source at the European Spallation Source) project (https://highnessproject.eu/).
Given that neutrons are electrically neutral particles, interacting weakly with matter, neutron beams are difficult to manipulate and in particular difficult to focus. Adding the relatively low phase space density of neutron sources it thus remains a challenge to generate intense neutron beams with specific size and divergence as required for a particular experiment. This limits the efficiency of many measurements. Over the years, a variety of focusing methods have been considered, developed and used, utilizing a wide range of optical solutions based on refraction, reflection, and diffraction, as well as magnetic optics for polarized neutron beams.
With the NFO workshop, we aim at bringing together scientists and experts from around the world to discuss current developments and perspectives on advanced neutron focusing methods. This is most relevant not only in the light of the advent of new facilities such as the European Spallation source that will house new instruments of all kinds including diffraction, inelastic scattering, small angle scattering, reflectometry, neutron imaging and spin-echo instruments, all of which can, and some are already designed to benefit substantially from advanced neutron focusing methods.
