Progress

Before the end of 1995 the mechanical parts to build Phase I arrived from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Bombay. The core of the equipment was the steel vessel for the insert shielding (the section inside the biological shielding after the shutter). The vessel is a high precision piece of engineering which accommodates the insert sections of both supermirror guides: IRIS and OSIRIS. The supermirror guides were positioned, precisely aligned and the whole system was closed, evacuated and tested with excellent results. The guide sections were built at NTK using polished glass. This glass was coated with a super-mirror multilayer at the Paul Scherrer Institute as part of Switzerland's collaboration. Single reflection measurements of the glass were performed on SURF and showed a very high reflectivity. Using an IRIS parasitic instrument, the Microguide Testing Device, multi-reflectivity measurements using the microguide technique confirmed the good results for another batch of glass pieces.

During the scheduled maintenance shutdown at the beginning of 1996 the front end of IRIS was dismantled, including the old insert, the inter-chopper guide, both choppers (6.4 and 10 m), and the next 7 m of guide. The area was prepared and rebuilt with the new insert and the new IRIS choppers in position. By the time ISIS started, IRIS was ready for the next user with a 100% increase in neutron intensity at long wavelengths thanks to the new insert super-mirror guide.

In 1997 further collaboration started. An EPSRC grant has been awarded to Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh), to investigate several alternatives in broad-band spin-flipper technology and to develop prototypes based on the most promising types. In December the first neutrons reached the diffraction detectors of OSIRIS and at almost the same time the grant to go ahead with the final phase, the building of the spectrometer, was approved.

The first cycles of 1998 saw a number of test experiments and commissioning of the Data Acquisition Equipment (DAE) and also the start of the writing of the software needed for the instrument. One of the eight detector elements was put in place and it was showed to be working, with the expected resolution achieved. During the autumn tests of the polarisation of the incident beam has been carried out.

During 1999 the instrument is scheduled to 50% for diffraction. The rest of the time is used for polarisation developments and the building of the spectrometer part of OSIRIS. The OSIRIS-THE NEXT STEPS is now funded by the univserity of Salford under a HEFCE grant. During the autumn polarisation of the incident beam was achived.