Neutron Scattering and Its Application to Strongly Correlated Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces neutron scattering as a versatile tool for studying strongly correlated systems, detailing its principles, types of measurements, and applications to magnetic and lattice phenomena, with an example on high-temperature superconductors.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of neutron scattering techniques and their application to strongly correlated materials, including experimental methods and case studies.

Findings

Detection of magnetic order and spin dynamics in superconductors

Measurement of lattice vibrations and atomic arrangements

Application to high-temperature superconductor La(2-x)Ba(x)CuO(4)

Abstract

Neutron scattering is a powerful probe of strongly correlated systems. It can directly detect common phenomena such as magnetic order, and can be used to determine the coupling between magnetic moments through measurements of the spin-wave dispersions. In the absence of magnetic order, one can detect diffuse scattering and dynamic correlations. Neutrons are also sensitive to the arrangement of atoms in a solid (crystal structure) and lattice dynamics (phonons). In this chapter, we provide an introduction to neutrons and neutron sources. The neutron scattering cross section is described and formulas are given for nuclear diffraction, phonon scattering, magnetic diffraction, and magnon scattering. As an experimental example, we describe measurements of antiferromagnetic order, spin dynamics, and their evolution in the La(2-x)Ba(x)CuO(4) family of high-temperature superconductors.