Accurate simulations of magnetic excitations in the neutron simulation package McStas

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new McStas component that accurately simulates neutron scattering from magnetic excitations using linear spin wave theory, validated against theoretical and simulated data.

Contribution

It presents a novel McStas component for simulating magnetic excitations, enabling more precise neutron scattering studies in complex magnetic materials.

Findings

Validated against theoretical predictions

Compared with SpinW simulations showing consistency

Demonstrated high-resolution neutron scattering simulation

Abstract

A new component for the accurate simulation of neutron scattering from magnetic excitations has been developed for the neutron ray-tracing software McStas. The component SpinWave_BCO simulates inelastic neutron scattering from ferro-, antiferro-, and altermagnetic excitations in a body-centered orthorhombic crystal structure, where the dispersion relation and scattered neutron intensities are derived using linear spin wave theory. Data from a simulated Triple-Axis Spectrometer with an extremely high resolution have been verified by direct comparison with theory and by comparison to data simulated using the package SpinW. The component serves as a proof-of-concept for the implementation of a more general linear spin wave component in McStas.