Neutron Scattering

• Discovery of neutrons
– Rutherford’s gold foil experiment
• Bombardment of gold foil with alpha particles showed that a
very small percentage of alpha particles were deflected.
• The nuclear model of the atom consists of a small and dense
positively charged interior surrounded by a cloud of electrons.

– Chadwick’s experiment
• When alpha particles were fired at a thin block of beryllium, a nuclear
transmutation resulted in the production of neutrons.
• By applying the law of conservation of momentum and
conservation of energy, Chadwick determined the mass of a neutron.
Chadwick reasoned that a neutral particle could eject a proton from
the paraffin by imparting its momentum onto it (this explanation
accounted for the kinetic energies of protons measured in the
experiment).
• Using the kinetic energy and momentum of emitted protons, Chadwick showed that the mass of a neutron is
slightly greater than that of a proton.
 Neutron Scattering
• Scattering techniques such as light scattering, X-ray scattering and neutron scattering offer unique
information on the structure and dynamics of materials, on appropriate time and length scales.
• Neutron scattering can be used to determine the positions and motions of atoms in condensed matter.
(Ernest Wollan, 1945)
• Neutron advantages:
– Wavelength comparable with interatomic spacings
– Kinetic energy comparable with that of atoms in a solid
– Penetrating => bulk properties are measured & sample can be contained
– Weak interaction with matter aids interpretation of scattering data
– Isotopic sensitivity allows contrast variation
– Neutron magnetic moment couples to B => neutron “sees” unpaired electron spins
• Neutron Disadvantages
– Neutron sources are weak => low signals, need for large samples etc
– Some elements (e.g. Cd, B, Gd) absorb strongly
– Kinematic restrictions (can’t access all energy & momentum transfers)
 Neutrons
• A neutron is an uncharged elementary particle, possessing a mass m equal to
1.675x10-24 g and spin ½.
• Neutrons are produced in one of two ways, either as a product of nuclear fission in a
reactor, or by a spallation process created by hitting heavy nuclei atoms with high
energy protons.
 Neutron Sources

Spallation neutron sources use bombardment of a heavy nuclei target with

Research reactors differ from those used for power
highly energetic particles such as protons to produce neutrons. The high
generation. Rather than trying to contain the neutrons energy protons are obtained by combining a linear accelerator with a
within the core, research reactor cores are surrounded by synchrotron. The linear accelerator produces H- ions with energies up to
bean tubes to enable the neutrons to escape. In the core, 70 GeV which are injected into a proton synchrotron. These protons are
fast neutrons are produced by fission reaction often then accelerated up to 800 MeV, and once at the appropriate energy, they
from enriched uranium (235U) are guided down a beam line to the target (tantalum metal target).
 Neutron Sources
• In either case, the neutrons produced are very energetic and they cannot be directly used for structural
or dynamic investigations. Their energies must therefore be reduced by a process called moderation.
This consists of an exchange of energy between the neutrons and the moderator molecules; the
neutrons are multiply scattered until they reach thermal equilibrium.

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 Why neutrons so useful?
• Neutrons scatter from materials by interacting with the nucleus of an atom
rather than the electron cloud. This means that the scattering power (cross-
section) of an atom is not strongly related to its atomic number unlike X-rays and
electrons where the scattering power increases in proportion to the number of
electrons in the atom.
– it is easier to sense light atoms, such as hydrogen, in the presence of heavier
ones
– neighbouring elements in the periodic table generally have substantially different
scattering cross sections and can be distinguished
– the nuclear dependence of scattering allows isotopes of the same element to have
substantially different scattering lengths for neutrons. Isotopic substitution can
be used to label different parts of the molecules making up a material.
Neutron Interactions
 Why neutrons so useful?
• The interaction of a neutron with the nucleus of an atom is weak, (but not
negligible) making them a highly penetrating probe. This allows the investigation
of the interior of materials, rather than the surface layers probed by techniques such
as X-ray scattering, electron microscopy or optical methods. This feature also makes
the use of complex sample environments such as cryostats, furnaces and pressure
cells quite routine, and enables the measurement of bulk processes under realistic
conditions. Because of the weak interaction, neutrons are a non-destructive probe,
even to complex and delicate biological or polymeric samples.
• Neutron energies are similar to the energies of atomic and electronic processes,
i.e. in the meV to eV range, allowing energy scales from the µeV of quantum
tunnelling, through molecular translations, rotations, vibrations and lattice modes, to
eV transitions within the electronic structure of materials to be probed.
 Why neutrons so useful?
• Neutrons have wavelengths similar to atomic spacings, permitting diffraction
measurements to be performed. Neutrons cover a wide wavelength range from
0.05-20 Å. Diffraction experiments range in length-scale from directly probing the
wavefunction of the hydrogen atom to the low-resolution study of macromolecules.
• Neutrons are spin-1/2 particles and therefore have a magnetic moment that can
couple directly to spatial and temporal variations of the magnetization of
materials on an atomic scale. Unlike other forms of radiation, neutrons are ideally
suited to the study of microscopic magnetism, magnetic structures and short
wavelength magnetic fluctuations. The cross-sections for magnetic scattering and
scattering from the chemical structure are fortunately of the same magnitude,
permitting the simultaneous measurement of the magnetic and chemical behavior of
materials.
 Basic Principles

• The nucleus-neutron interaction can be characterized in terms of two quantities known

as the neutron scattering length, b, and the scattering cross-section, s.
• The neutron scattering length determines the amplitude of the scattered wave with
respect to the amplitude of the incident wave.
• The probability that a neutron from the incident beam will be found in the scattered
beam is determined by the square of the wave amplitude, i.e. b2. This represents the
probability that a neutron will be scattered per nucleus, per incident neutrons, per solid
angle. Given that there are 4p steradians in a sphere, the probability of a neutron being
scattered somewhere in space is simply 4pb2, which is defined as s.
 Neutron Reflectivity
• Neutron reflectometry is a neutron diffraction technique for measuring the structure
of thin films. The technique provides valuable information over a wide variety of
scientific and technological applications including chemical aggregation, polymer
and surfactant adsorption, structure of thin film magnetic systems, biological
membranes, etc.
• The technique involves shining a highly collimated beam of neutrons onto an
extremely flat surface and measuring the intensity of reflected radiation as a function
of angle or neutron wavelength. Neutron reflectometry is a specular reflection
technique, where the angle of the incident beam is equal to the angle of the reflected
beam. The exact shape of the reflectivity profile provides detailed information about
the structure of the surface, including the thickness, density, and roughness of any
thin films layered on the substrate.
Why use Neutron Reflectivity?
Typical Reflectivity
 Neutron spin-echo
• Neutron spin echo spectroscopy is an inelastic neutron scattering. The spin echo
spectrometer possesses an extremely high energy resolution (roughly one part in
100,000). Additionally, it measures the density-density correlation (or intermediate
scattering function) F(Q,t) as a function of momentum transfer Q and time.
• In soft matter research the structure of macromolecular objects is often investigated
by small angle neutron scattering, SANS. The exchange of hydrogen with deuterium
in some of the molecules creates scattering contrast between even equal chemical
species. The SANS diffraction pattern—if interpreted in real space—corresponds to a
snapshot picture of the molecular arrangement. Neutron spin echo instruments can
analyze the inelastic broadening of the SANS intensity and thereby analyze the
motion of the macromolecular objects.
 Applications
• Although the NSE spectrometer is designed primarily for soft-matter research, its
capabilities also make it useful for all fields of modern condensed matter physics,
materials science, and biophysics. This instrument is especially suited for analyzing
slow dynamical processes and thereby unraveling molecular motions and mobilities
at nanoscopic and mesoscopic levels. This feature is highly relevant to soft-matter
problems in research on the molecular rheology of polymer melts, related phenomena
in networks and rubbers, interface fluctuations in complex fluids and polyelectrolytes,
and transport in polymeric electrolytes and gel systems. NSE could also aid studies in
magnetism if appropriately adapted.