Absolute intensity normalisation of powder neutron scattering data

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple method for normalising neutron scattering data to absolute intensity units using Rietveld refinement, facilitating more accurate and consistent data analysis.

Contribution

It provides a practical approach and tabulated factors for normalising neutron scattering data from polycrystalline samples using common refinement programs.

Findings

Method successfully normalises data to absolute units

Applicable to both constant-wavelength and time-of-flight data

Discusses potential extensions to spectroscopic data

Abstract

An important property of neutron scattering data is that they can be normalised in absolute intensity units. In practice, however, such normalisation is often not performed, since it can be time-consuming and subject to systematic uncertainties. Here, a straightforward approach is presented for absolute intensity normalisation of neutron scattering data from polycrystalline samples. This approach uses the intensity scale factor obtained from a Rietveld refinement to normalise the data to the nuclear Bragg profile of the sample. Factors to convert the Rietveld scale factor into an absolute normalisation factor are tabulated for constant-wavelength and time-of-flight data refined using the popular programs Fullprof and GSAS-II. An example of the application of this method to experimental data is presented. Advantages, disadvantages, and extensions of this approach to spectroscopic data are discussed.