Component Manual for the Neutron Ray-Tracing Package McStas, version 3.9

3.3  The Source_Maxwell_3 McStas Component

Source with up to three Maxwellian distributions

Identification

Description

A parametrised continuous source for modelling a (cubic) source with (up to) 3 Maxwellian distributions. The source produces a continuous spectrum. The sampling of the neutrons is uniform in wavelength.

Units of flux: neutrons/cm^2/second/ster (McStas units are in general neutrons/second)

Example:  PSI cold source T1=150.42 K / 2.51 AA     I1 = 3.67 E11
T2=38.74 K / 4.95 AA      I2 = 3.64 E11
T3=14.84 K / 9.5 AA       I3 = 0.95 E11

Input parameters

Parameters in boldface are required; the others are optional.

Name

Unit

Description

Default

size

m

Edge of cube shaped source (for backward compatibility)

0

yheight

m

Height of rectangular source

0

xwidth

m

Width of rectangular source

0

Lmin

Å

Lower edge of lambda distribution

Lmax

Å

Upper edge of lambda distribution

dist

m

Distance from source to focusing rectangle; at (0,0,dist)

focus_xw

m

Width of focusing rectangle

focus_yh

m

Height of focusing rectangle

T1

K

1st temperature of thermal distribution

T2

K

2nd temperature of thermal distribution

300

T3

K

3nd temperature of - - -

300

I1

1/(cm**2*st)

flux, 1 (in flux units, see above)

I2

1/(cm**2*st)

flux, 2 (in flux units, see above)

0

I3

1/(cm**2*st)

flux, 3 - - -

0

target_index

1

relative index of component to focus at, e.g. next is +1 this is used to compute ’dist’ automatically.

1

lambda0

Å

Mean wavelength of neutrons.

0

dlambda

Å

Wavelength spread of neutrons.

0

Links

A continuous source with a Maxwellian spectrum

This component is a source with a Maxwellian energy/wavelength distribution sampled in the range \(\lambda _\textrm {low}\) to \(\lambda _\textrm {high}\). The initial neutron ray position is chosen randomly from within a rectangle of area \(h \times w\) in the \(z=0\) plane. The initial neutron ray direction is focused within a solid angle, defined by a rectangular target of width \(xw\), height \(yh\), parallel to the \(xy\) plane placed at \((0,0,d_\textrm {foc})\). The energy distribution used is a sum of 1, 2, or 3 Maxwellians with temperatures \(T_1\) to \(T_3\) and integrated intensities \(I_1\) to \(I_3\).

For one single Maxwellian, the intensity in a small wavelength interval \([\lambda , \lambda +d\lambda ]\) is \( I_1 M(\lambda ,T_1) d\lambda \) where \(M(\lambda ,T_1) = 2 \alpha ^2 \exp (-\alpha /\lambda ^2) / \lambda ^5 \) is the normalized Maxwell distribution (\(\alpha =949.0\) K Å\(^2/T_1\)). The initial weight of the created neutron ray, \(p_0\), is calculated according to Eq. (3.2), with \(\Psi (\lambda )\) replaced by \(\sum _{j=1}^3 I_j M(\lambda ,T_j)\).

The component Source_gen (see section 3.4) works on the same principle, but provides more options concerning wavelength/energy range specifications, shape, etc.

Some example transmission data files usable alongside sources like this one are given in Table 4.5.