Facilities

Status of NeXus adoption by facility type. As it is very difficult to keep the information here current, this page will always at least partially be out of date. Please send any updates to the mailing list.

Pulsed Muon Facilities

ISIS Muon Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK: The ISIS facility has been producing and using NeXus files on its muon spectrometers for many years now (see Muon_Time_Differential definition). The current definition is in the process of being updated to allow it to store more complex experiments and also to make it more similar to the TOFRaw definition used on the ISIS neutron instruments.

X-ray Facilities

Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, US: (2015) APS stores some of its data collection in HDF5 files according to different formats, including NeXus. These files are written using either C++ code with HDF5 libraries or python code using the h5py package. No beam lines use the NAPI in their own code. The EPICS area detector software has two plug-ins that can write acquired images (and metadata) into NeXus data files. The HDF5 file writer plug-in uses the HDF5 C/C++ library interface and a user-supplied template file to write NeXus data files. The NeXus file writer plug-in uses the NAPI. Note there are plans to deprecate the NeXus plug-in in favor of the more generic HDF5 plug-in. Also, some commercial manufacturers of area detectors in use at the APS now write acquired images into NeXus data files.

Diamond Light Source, Oxfordshire, UK: The data acquisition system GDA deployed at most Diamond beamlines is capable of writing and reading NeXus. In general beamlines coming online now collect data in NeXus/HDF5 as the primary format from day one. Some existing beamlines have already been migrated, more are following on a case by case basis. It is aimed that all data will be contained in NeXus for long term archiving.

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, ESRF, FRANCE: The ESRF is planning on moving to use Nexus/HDF5 for storing all raw data as part of the ambitious ESRF upgrade program. The adoption of Nexus/HDF5 is planned over the time period 2009 to 2012. Currently (2009) the ESRF is actively exploring Nexus and HDF5 to see what the technical implications are for data acquisition and analysis programs. The plan is to where possible adapt data analysis to directly read data generated by data acquisition programs in Nexus/HDF5 format. The current experience shows that Nexus alone is not sufficient and extensions to the standard are required. The extensions are being implemented directly in HDF5.

Alba Synchrotron Light Facility, Spain: Alba uses NeXus with HDF5 backend as its main format for storing data on all its beamlines (although scan data may also be duplicated in other formats such as SPEC for convenience). NeXus files are normally created by the Sardana control system. Currently (2014) only NXscan (and recently NXtomo) compliant files are created in production, although introduction of other Application Definitions is being tested.

SLS, Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland: The Swiss Light Source is considering NeXus at some beamlines. The PolLux STXM beamline has been developing and using new control software since late 2012 which records all data in NeXus/HDF5 format. This STXM control software (and the NeXus format with it) is propagating to a number of other STXM beamlines around the world. The SLS is encouraging Dectris to have their new detectors (e.g. Eiger) record data in an HDF5 format in order to ease further adoption of NeXus.

Neutron Scattering Facilities

ISIS Neutron Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK: Instruments on the ISIS second target station are now generating NeXus files as per the TOFRaw definition in parallel with old ISIS RAW format files. Currently most data analysis is carried out using the ISIS RAW files, but the new Mantid data analysis framework supports TOFRaw NeXus files and is being increasingly used. The long term goal is to entirely replace the old ISIS RAW file format on both the first and second target stations with NeXus files; the rate determining step for this is the updating of data analysis code to read NeXus files.

Lujan Neutron Scattering Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA: The Lujan Center is generating NeXus files on all instruments. We are in the process of making the files consistent with the emerging standards, especially TOFRaw. The facility hosts about 65,000 NeXus files and the number is growing.

Materials and Life Science Facility, J-PARC, Japan: In FY2008, we have successfully received first proton beam and produced pulsed neutron and muon beam at Materials and Life Science Facility (MLF) in J-PARC (http://www.j-parc.jp/index-e.html). Histogrammed data converted from event-format data and analyzed data are stored in NeXus data format with metadata, and NeXus is common and shared data format among neutron scattering instruments and scientists in MLF. NeXus C-API is utilized through Manyo-Library which is the data analysis framework for neutron scattering experiments. Data analysis softwares for each instrument have been developed with C++ and python on Manyo-Library.

Bragg Institute, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Australia: We are currently writing NeXus files in HDF5 on 5 out of 7 instruments, including Small Angle, Reflectometer, Powder Diffaction and Residual Stress. NeXus is not being used on Triple Axis and Single Crystal Diffraction. The next wave of instruments will be predominantly NeXus.

Institut Laue Langevin ILL, Grenoble France: As of 2008-2009, the ILL has 2 instruments that generate NeXus/HDF5 files as base format: the Disk chopper time-of-flight cold neutrons spectrometer IN5 IN5 and Time of Flight Neutron Spectrometer for Small Angle Inelastic themal neutron Scattering BRISP BRISP. Volume of data (Gb’s) is substantially higher than what we used to have at the ILL before - because of large PSD detectors - and NeXus was then the only sensible choice for storage. We then use LAMP, and Matlab tools (incl. Mslice from Oxford/ISIS) to read and convert data sets. McStas is also used to model these instruments, and may also generate NeXus files.

Spallation Neutron Source SNS, Oak Ridge, TN, USA: SNS is using TOFRaw for storing histogram based data from all instruments. We are working towards storing the raw event data in NeXus instead as the data acquisition saves data in that form already.

SINQ, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland: At SINQ most data files are stored in NeXus format, as of January, 5, 2009 1104153 files were collected. As PSI pioneered NeXus file writing, most files do not adhere to the newest standards for NeXus files anymore. This will be rectified as soon as more progress on application definitions has been made.

Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz FRM II, Germany: Introduction of NeXus is under discussion since long; as of 2011, NeXus is used by zero (0) instruments.

European Spallation Source ESS, Sweden: Current plans foresee all raw data to be stored in NeXus. Processed data is set to follow that model.