Component Manual for the Neutron Ray-Tracing Package McStas, version 3.8.6

6.5  The Selector McStas Component

velocity selector (helical lamella type) such as <b>V_selector</b> component

Identification

Description

Velocity selector consisting of rotating Soller-like blades defining a helically twisted passage. Geometry is defined by two identical apertures at 12 o’clock position, The origin is at the ENTRANCE of the selector.

Example: Selector(xmin=-0.015, xmax=0.015, ymin=-0.025, ymax=0.025, length=0.25,

nslit=72,d=0.0004, radius=0.12, alpha=48.298, nu=500)

These are values for the D11@ILL Dornier ’Dolores’ Velocity Selector (NVS 023)

%VALIDATION Jun 2005: extensive external test, one minor problem Jan 2006: problem solved (for McStas-1.9.1) Validated by: K. Lieutenant

%BUGS for transmission calculation, each neutron is supposed to be in the guide centre

Input parameters

Parameters in boldface are required; the others are optional.

Name

Unit

Description

Default

xmin

m

Lower x bound of entry aperture

-0.015

xmax

m

Upper x bound of entry aperture

0.015

ymin

m

Lower y bound of entry aperture

-0.025

ymax

m

Upper y bound of entry aperture

0.025

length

m

rotor length

0.25

xwidth

m

Width of entry. Overrides xmin,xmax.

0

yheight

m

Height of entry. Overrides ymin,ymax.

0

nslit

1

number of absorbing subdivinding spokes/lamella

72

d

m

width of spokes at beam-center

0.0004

radius

m

radius of beam-center

0.12

alpha

deg

angle of torsion

48.298

nu

Hz

frequency of rotation, which is ideally 3956*alpha*DEG2RAD/2/PI/lambda/length

500

Links

another approach to describe a rotating velocity selector

The component Selector describes the same kind of rotating velocity selector as V_selector - compare description there - but it uses different parameters and a different algorithm:

The position of the apertures relative to the z-axis (usually the beam centre) is defined by the four parameters \(xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax\). Entry and exit apertures are always identical and situated directly before and behind the rotor. There are \(num\) blades of thickness \(width\) twisted by the angle \(\alpha \) (in degrees) on a length \(len\). The selector rotates with a speed \(feq\) (in rotation per second); its axle is in a distance \(radius\) below the z-axis.

First the neutron is propagated to the entrance window. The loss of neutrons hitting the thin side of the blades is taken into account by multiplying the neutron weight by a factor

\begin {equation} p(r) = \theta _i(r) / \theta _o \end {equation}

\begin {equation} \theta _o = 360^o / num \end {equation}

\(\theta _i\) is the opening between two blades for the distance \(r\) between the neutron position (at the entrance) and the selector axle. The difference between \(\theta _o\) and \(\theta _i\) is determined by the blade thickness. The neutron is now propagated to the exit window. If it is outside the regarded channel (between the two actual blades), it is lost; otherwise it remains in the exit plane.

WARNING - Differences between Selector and V_selector: