Neutron Powder Diffraction

Abstract

Neutron powder diffraction 3.1 Introduction X-ray powder diffraction (XPD) is a well-known technique that is extensively used in material science and engineering. In the last few decades, the availability of powerful data analysis programs means that XPD could be used to evaluate a variety of crystal structure parameters. However, the nature of information that could be taken out of XPD patterns is still limited by the fundamental nature of the interaction between the electromagnetic wave and the atoms. In quantum mechanics, a De Broglie wave is associated to any particle. Thus, neutron diffraction is conceptually similar to X-ray diffraction. The main difference between these two radiations is that while X-rays interact primarily with the electron cloud surrounding the atom, neutron scattering is due to the interaction of the atom nuclei with the incident neutron (see chapter 2). Therefore, neutron powder diffraction (NPD) could provide complementary information not accessible with X-rays. In particular, for hydrogen in metals, neutron diffraction is practically the only technique that could locate the hydrogen (deuterium) atom in the lattice. Usually, upon hydrogenation, there will be

(CsX)Cu5O2(PO4)2 (X = Cl, Br, I): A Family of Cu2+ S = 1/2 Compounds with Capped-Kagomé Networks Composed of OCu4 Units

“…Conventional background-corrected Rietveld R factors for the fit calculated only for points with Bragg contributions. 36,37 For the definition of R-factors, see the Supporting Information. disordered model, showing that Cs atoms sit in a double welltype potential within voids of the electroneutral copper oxyphosphate framework (see Figure 4).…”

Synthesis and properties of AxV2Al20 (A = Th, U, Np, Pu) ternary actinide aluminides

“…Reliability factors calculated without correction for background are given in TableS1of Supplementary Material. For discussion of effect of background in fit reliability assessment see refs [32,33]…”