Neutron imaging has seen a remarkable transformation from a non-destructive testing tool spotting cracks on millimetre length scales in industrial components to a diverse research tool in material science and beyond. Direct spatial resolutions of a few micrometers are state of the art today, but also structural features down to the Angstrom regime can be probed through modalities sensitive to scattering. In contrast to conventional attenuation contrast, today neutron imaging techniques are capable of considering and quantifying signals from small angle scattering, diffraction, magnetic interaction and quasi/inelastic scattering. This has paved the way to a wide range of contributions in numerous fields of research and unique insights into materials and processes that are of significant relevance in academia, industry and eventually society. An overview of advanced neutron imaging and the respective contrast modalities and techniques shall be provided along a few selected science cases of neutron imaging today.
Markus Strobl is the Head of the Applied Materials Group operating the neutron imaging and engineering instruments at the Swiss Neutron Source SINQ of the Laboratory for Neutron Scattering and Imaging at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland. He studied at the Technical University of Vienna and received his PhD in Physics for the exploration of alternative contrast signals in neutron tomography at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin. After operating, designing and building instruments for neutron imaging, ultra-small angle neutron scattering, neutron reflectivity and neutron time-of-flight techniques for various applications in applied materials, engineering, hard and soft matter science in Berlin he moved to Scandinavia working for the European Spallation Source (ESS) developing several instrument projects, in particular the neutron imaging instrument ODIN, acted as coordinator of the science focus areas of imaging, geology, engineering and cultural heritage sciences and as deputy head of the Neutron Instrument Division. He became an affiliated Professor for Neutron and X-ray Imaging Techniques at the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen in 2014 and held an Otto Mønsted visiting professorship at the Danish Technical University in fall 2022. Between 2017 and 2021 he also held a senior scientist position at the Nuclear Physics Institute of Czech Academy of Science in parallel to his main affiliation with ESS and later PSI. In the meantime, in 2017, he had moved to Switzerland and took over the lead of the Neutron Imaging and Activation Group at PSI, today the Applied Materials Group. Markus is furthermore acting as elected Vice President of the International Society of Neutron Radiography (ISNR) in his second term as well as second term board member of the Swiss Society of Neutron Science.
