Neutron Magnetic Moment Scattering

Neutron scattering has been the main tool used for the study of lanthanide magnetic structures (Koehler 1972), and X-ray scattering has made important recent contributions (Gibbs et al. 1986, 1988, Isaacs et al. 1989). The neutron magnetic moment couples to the total magnetization of each atom. The elastic scattering cross section is written in a compact form as (Squires 1978),... 

Because the neutron has a magnetic moment, it has a similar interaction with the clouds of impaired d or f electrons in magnetic ions and this interaction is important in studies of magnetic materials. The magnetic analogue of the atomic scattering factor is also tabulated in the International Tables [3]. Neutrons also have direct interactions with atomic nuclei, whose mass is concentrated in a volume whose radius is of the order of... 

Table 9. Conduction electron polarization effect in uranium ferromagnetic monocompounds conduction electron polarization moment Psai saturation moment from magnetization studies ordered magnetic moment as determined by neutron scattering...

Neutron diffraction by crystals has been found valuable for locating hydrogen atoms (especially deuterium atoms, which scatter neutrons strongly), for studying the arrangement of magnetic moments, and for other special purposes. A summary is given by G. E. Bacon, Neutron Diffraction, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1955. 

Though a simultaneous ordering of both nickel and erbium magnetic moments in Er2BaNi05 at TN 34 K follows unambiguously from neutron scattering [9, 7] and spectroscopic [6] data, the magnetic susceptibility does not show any peculiarity at TN but demonstrates a sharp maximum at a considerably lower temperature Tm=15 K (see, e.g., [8]). 

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