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Feature

Mapping atomic motions in materials

14 August 2009
T. Perring

Knowledge of the motions of atomic positions or magnetic fluctuations enables the strength, range and symmetry of the interatomic forces and magnetic coupling in a material to be determined. Increasingly, many of the materials of interest in condensed matter physics are characterised by the coupled interactions between more than one of the charge, lattice, magnetic and atomic orbital motions in all three spatial directions. New experimental approaches combining data from hundreds of neutron scattering datasets coupled with advanced visualisation software now enables complete mapping of the dynamics in materials on a routine basis.

From the very beginning of the development of neutron scattering as a probe of materials it was recognised that not only could atomic structures be determined – that is, the static or time-averaged locations of the constituent atoms – but so could the motions of the atoms, be that vibrational or diffusive motion. Moreover, because the neutron has a magnetic moment, the fluctuations of the magnetic moments at an atomic scale can be probed, both of the atomic magnetic moments in an insulator and those of the conduction electrons in a metal.

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Characterization Magnetic materials

 

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