DOI: 10.1051/epjconf/20100807007 c © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2010 Measurement of the inelastic neutron scattering cross section

Abstract. At the superconducting electron linear accelerator ELBE at Forschungszen-trum Dresden-Rossendorf the neutron time-of-flight facility nELBE has become oper-ational. Fast neutrons in the energy range from 200 keV to 10 MeV are produced by the pulsed electron beam from ELBE impinging on a liquid lead circuit as a radiator. The short beam pulses of 10 ps provide the basis for an excellent time resolution for neutron time-of-flight experiments, giving an energy resolution of about <1 % at 1 MeV with a short flight path of 5 m. By means of a “double-time-of-flight ” setup the (n,nâγ) cross section to the first excited state of 56Fe has been measured over the whole energy range without knowledge about cross sections of higher-lying levels. Plastic scintillators were used to detect the inelastically scattered neutron and BaF2 detectors to detect the correlated γ-ray.