Small‐Angle Neutron Scattering

Summary

Small‐angle neutron scattering (SANS) is the ideal tool for a large number of investigations in the field of materials science, such as the characterization of precipitates, clusters, interfaces, grain sizes, and structures in materials such as metal alloys, ceramics, and polymers. For the use of polarized neutrons, two V‐shaped polarizers and a spin flipper are necessary to obtain polarized neutrons with a spin parallel to the direction of the magnetic field and to flip the neutron spin to the direction antiparallel to the field. SANS in combination with USANS on a double crystal diffractometer (DCD) is the ideal tool to investigate the influence of microstructure. Due to the special properties of neutrons, SANS is particularly suitable for the analysis of magnetic structures and of samples with light elements, especially after labeling with deuterium or using the H/D‐contrast variation method.