The Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering is the home of neutron science in Australia and a leading facility in the Asia Oceania region. It is part of an international network of organisations with neutron sources that delivers world-competitive neutron scattering science from Australian and international users.
Research at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering been used to determine the internal structure of many types of materials, helping scientists understand why materials have the properties they do, and helping tailor new materials, devices and systems.
Commenced user operations
Neutron beam instruments
Publications in 2021
ACNS Scatter Matters Newsletter #7 (PDF, 1.09 MB)
ACNS Scatter Matters Newsletter #6 (PDF, 1.29 MB)
ACNS Scatter Matters Newsletter #5 (PDF, 1.67 MB)
ACNS Scatter Matters Newsletter #4 (PDF, 1.34 MB)
ACNS Scatter Matters Newsletter #3 (PDF, 2.11 MB)
ACNS Scatter Matters Newsletter #2 (PDF, 1.41 MB)
ACNS Scatter Matters Newsletter #1 (PDF, 1.73 MB)
Wombat is a high intensity neutron diffractometer that is primarily used as a high-speed powder diffractometer, but has also expanded into texture characterisation and single-crystal measurement, particularly diffuse scattering.
Neutron powder diffraction is particularly useful for materials with light elements in the presence of heavy ones and for magnetic materials such as superconductors, pharmaceuticals, aerospace alloys and much more.
Koala is one of the leading small-molecule crystallography instruments in the world for determining the complex crystal structure of a wide range of chemicals and minerals.
Kowari, a residual stress diffractometer, can be used for ‘strain scanning’ of large engineering components as large as 1000 kilograms.
The Platypus instrument can be used to study all-manner of surface-science and interface problems, particularly related to magnetic recording materials and for polymer coatings, biosensors and artificial biological membranes.
The QUOKKA instrument provides the powerful technique of small-angle neutron scattering which can look at sizes and structures of objects on the nanoscale including soft matter.
Taipan is used to study the collective motion of atoms, phonons and magnons in materials, and phase transitions and processes involving thermal energy.
Ultra small angle neutron scattering on Kookaburra is used to study the size and shape of objects of size 10 micrometres and below.
The instrument is designed to measure inelastic neutron scattering, or do neutron spectroscopy.
The instrument is ideally suited to study of spin and lattice dynamics, magnon and phonon dispersion relations in single crystal samples.
Neutron imaging or tomography creates a whole series of three-dimensional images of an object that can be reconstructed.
The instrument is very well suited for the study of kinetic effects, like relaxation following a chemical reaction, or external impulses like mechanical deformation, an electric or magnetic field.
Theinstrument is typically used to study diffusing water molecules or yet larger molecules like polymers or biological molecules. In addition, Emu can reveal quantum-mechanical tunnelling.
A Laue-diffraction neutron alignment camera for single crystals.
A neutron reflectometer for vertical samples.
There are 15 neutron beam instruments, which are classified into four main groups: diffractometers, small-angle spectrometers imaging and reflectometry instruments and inelastic spectrometers.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Science and Technology funded the construction of a cold neutron triple-axis spectrometer, Sika, which was constructed by National Central University. The National Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre (NSRRC) commissioned the instrument, introduced it into the international user program and promotes its use to users in Taiwan.
Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin agreed to the transfer of their BioRef reflectometer, which will be known as Spatz. It is currently being commissioned. Unlike Platypus which operates in a vertical scattering plane, Spatz operates in the horizontal scattering plane and has an infrared spectrometer.
The suite of instruments and operating cabins are housed in the Neutron Guide Hall, which also accommodates sample preparation areas, laboratories and other technical support facilities. The Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering also operates three X-ray instruments, a helium polarising instrument and a physical properties measurement system.
Neutrons are subatomic particles released in nuclear fission. They have no electrical charge and penetrate materials more effectively than X-rays. This ability makes neutrons an especially useful tool in industrial materials analysis.
Neutron scattering is a technique used to find answers to fundamental questions about the structure and composition of materials used in medicine, mining, transportation, building, engineering, food processing and scientific research.
Neutrons penetrate most materials to depths of several centimetres. In comparison, X-rays and electrons probe only near the surface.
X-rays and electrons are scattered by atomic electrons whereas neutrons are scattered by atomic nuclei. This results in a number of differences, perhaps the most important being in the scattering from light elements. Whereas one electron on a hydrogen atom can be hard to find by X-ray or electron diffraction, the hydrogen nucleus scatters neutrons strongly and is easily found in a neutron diffraction experiment.
Neutrons, though electrically neutral, act as small magnets, and are uniquely powerful in the atomic scale study of magnetism.
Neutrons are also uniquely suited to the study of the dynamic processes (e.g. thermal vibrations) in solids.
The Food Materials Science project applies nuclear-based techniques to investigate fundamental and industrial problems of national significance in food science, including food processing and product development. ingredient selection, food, and health
Creating a global energy system that is both environmentally and economically sustainable is unquestionably one of the largest challenges facing the scientific and engineering communities.
Over the last decades, neutron, photon, and ion beams have been established as an innovative and attractive investigative approach to characterise cultural-heritage materials.
As an experimental tool for the study of magnetism, neutron scattering is without equal in its range of applications.
Welcome to the home of Planetary Materials research at ANSTO.
Neutrons created by fission from two sources in the OPAL multipurpose reactor are directed into beams that feed a suite of 15 state-of- the-art neutron instruments. Beams of neutrons are used to probe very small samples. Because they can behave as particle or waves with a magnetic moment, their special properties reveal information about structure and dynamics at the atomic scale. Although neutrons interact with the nuclei of atoms, they are non-invasive in that they do not change a sample nor deposit energy into it.
For the diffraction instruments, a sample is placed within a neutron beam and the angles at which the neutrons are deflected or scattered by the material are recorded to generate a “diffraction pattern” from which structural information can be extracted.
Leader, Australian Centre for neutron Scattering
Operations Manager, Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering
Industrial Liaison Manager
Senior Research Scientist
Capital Portfolio Manager
ANSTO – Sydney
New Illawarra Rd,
Lucas Heights NSW 2234
ANSTO – Melbourne
800 Blackburn Rd,
Clayton VIC 3168
