Corrections for the geometric distortion of the tube detectors on SANS instruments at ORNL

The small-angle neutron scattering instruments at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor recently upgraded the area detectors from the large, single volume crossed-wire detectors originally installed to staggered arrays of linear position-sensitive detectors (LPSDs). The specific geometry of the LPSD array requires that approaches to data reduction traditionally employed be modified. Here, two methods for correcting the geometric distortion produced by the LPSD array are presented and compared. The first method applies a correction derived from a detector sensitivity measurement performed using the same configuration as the samples are measured. In the second method, a solid angle correction is derived that can be applied to data collected in any instrument configuration during the data reduction process in conjunction with a detector sensitivity measurement collected at a sufficiently long camera length where the geometric distortions are negligible. Both methods produce consistent results and yield a maximum deviation of corrected data from isotropic scattering samples of less than 5% for scattering angles up to a maximum of 35°. The results are broadly applicable to any SANS instrument employing LPSD array detectors, which will be increasingly common as instruments having higher incident flux are constructed at various neutron scattering facilities around the world