Structure research

Neutron diffractometers are instruments for the determination of atomic position in crystalline solids, their lattice plane spacing and their magnetic structures as well as various order and disorder phenomena. The size of the unit cells ranges from ionic crystals with less than 100 ų in cell volume to complex protein crystals with several 100,000 ų.

Most powder and single crystal diffractometers at the MLZ use monochromatic neutron beams. Exceptions are the instruments POWTEX and SAPHiR (currently under construction), which use a pulsed neutron beam with a wide bandwidth (time-of-flight / TOF principle).

Powder diffractometers are particularly suitable for the structural characterisation of polycrystalline samples and, due to their rapid data acquisition, also allow in-situ investigations, for example, on ferroelectrics, battery materials, hydrogen storage, etc.

Single-crystal diffractometers probe structural properties, such as magnetic moments, with higher precision.

The scattering patterns recorded by the instruments essentially assume a scattering of the neutrons without energy transfer.