Magnetic Scattering Chapter

TL;DR

This chapter reviews neutron and x-ray scattering techniques used to study magnetic structures and dynamics, highlighting recent advances and their complementary roles in understanding magnetic materials.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of current scattering methods, emphasizing recent developments in resonant x-ray scattering and their application to various magnetic systems.

Findings

Neutron scattering remains a key technique for magnetic investigations.

Resonant x-ray scattering has advanced significantly, enabling new measurements.

Both techniques offer complementary insights into magnetic structures and dynamics.

Abstract

The present chapter reviews current neutron and x-ray scattering techniques employed to elucidate the magnetic structures and spin dynamics of magnetic materials. Both techniques provide measurements as a function of the energy and the momentum transferred from the spin system to the probe particles, in terms of five-dimensional data sets as a function of various thermodynamic fields at the control of the experimenter. These scattering techniques yield fundamental information about the equal-time correlations such the magnetic configuration and symmetry, as well as the dynamics that determine the exchange interactions for prototypical systems that behave as linear, planar, or three-dimensional systems. Historically, neutron scattering has been the magnetic scattering technique of choice for such investigations, but the extraordinary advances in resonant x-ray scattering techniques have enable new types of magnetic scattering measurements. The type of information obtained with the two techniques is largely complementary and depends on the interests of the investigators. We discuss these possibilities and provide numerous examples of the techniques applied to different classes of magnetic systems.