Latest progress in neutron science platform and application of China Mianyang Research Reactor

Neutrons have been the unique probe that possesses magnetism， depth detection， and element sensitivity， and have become an important technique of innovative research in the field of materials science. As one of the three major neutron sources in China， China Mianyang Research Reactor （CMRR） of China Academy of Engineering Physics took the lead in building eight scientific devices and putting them into use in the first phase in 2013， which has been running stably for more than ten years. This paper focuses on the progress in device technology and application research of the CMRR neutron platform in recent years. At present， the CMRR neutron platform has fifteen scientific devices， nearly double the number present in the first phase. Based on the newly developed devices， the maximum measurable scale of the static structure for materials is widened from hundreds of nanometers to tens of micrometers. Meanwhile， the energy resolution for micro-dynamic characterization is improved by about three orders of magnitude from the original sub-microelectron volt to the hundred-nanoelectron volt. Based on the advantages of an integrated large-scale scientific facility that possesses multi-scale and multi-parameter characterization abilities， the CMRR neutron platform has been applied to the research of key engineering materials such as metal alloys， magnetic materials， battery materials， energetic materials， soft materials， as well as the field of engineering components manufacturing. In the future， relying on the National Key Laboratory of Neutron Science and Technology， effort will be made to promote the major original innovation based on neutron science and the frontier development of new materials， condensed matter physics and other disciplines， which is expected to provide new insights and innovative solutions for the bottleneck scientific and technological problems faced by the research and development of engineering materials and components.