Historical account of polarized neutrons in Grenoble

The history of polarized neutrons in Grenoble starts with reactor Melusine where a lifting counter diffractometer was constructed to measure spin dens ities and form factors. When the Institut Laue Langevin began to operate, t he instruments of the first generation included only one multipurpose tripl e-axis spectrometer for polarization analysis, spin densities and form fact or measurements. Soon the construction of the spin echo started and two oth er dedicated polarized neutron instruments were added: one for spin densiti es and one for diffuse scattering. Polarization analysis progressed from on e-directional to three-directional and later was generalized to three-dimen sional. The advance of polarizing devices such as monochromators, mirrors, supermirrors, and polarizing filters is also discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.