The main task of the MILAND project is to increase the performances of neutron detectors for Single crystal diffraction and Reflectometry, and to deliver an operational prototype to the community of neutron users.

The solutions studied during the first 2 years are all based on the capture of neutrons in 3He. Several Micro-Strip Gas Chamber (MSGC) prototypes have been produced and studied (LLB, ISIS, LIP, ILL) either in the light readout mode, or in the charge readout mode. Several Multi Wires Proportional Chambers (MWPC) prototypes have also been extensively studied, equipped with their front-ends electronics, either for individual (ILL and FRM2) or for delay line readout (GKSS and BNC). After the prototyping phase which lasted for 2 years, it has been decided to choose the MWPC technique to build a large area detector of 32 cm x 32 cm with individual readout.

One of the main difficulties was to operate the detector at a gas pressure of 15 bars to minimize the parallax error. A double volume pressure vessel, connected to a pressure compensation system has been designed. The front-end processing electronics is calculating on-line the position of each neutron with an algorithm based on the centre of gravity of the individual signals.

A counting rate capability exceeding 1 MHz, and a 1 mm spatial resolution have been demonstrated.

Measured performances are in good agreement with the initial specifications. The detector will be mounted on the D16 ILL instrument in 2008 for evaluation and routine experiments.
In parallel to the fabrication of the large area MILAND detector, we continued the development of Anger type prototypes, combining GSPC (Gas Scintillation Proportional Chambers) and Photomultipliers Tubes. Preliminary tests on a neutron beam line demonstrated the feasibility of this technique for very high counting rate and high resolution applications.

Technical progress and project management were discussed during meetings hold every 4 months.



Seven European partners and three non-European observers participated in the project. All participants have a strong experience in neutron detectors, and several of them in high energy physics and X-Ray detection.

Non-European observers are world experts in detectors, interested to participate in MILAND in view of the future spallation sources (SNS, JSNS).

Coordinator: Bruno Guerard