EPJ B – Longitudinal polarization analysis, SANS souci

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Published on 01 October 2010

Ground breaking experiments in EPJ B by D. Honecker and colleagues on an FeCr two-phase nanocrystalline alloy demonstrate the power of one-dimensional neutron-spin analysis in a small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiment.

With this method it becomes possible to measure partial correlation functions, and observe several novel anisotropies and asymmetries in the magnetic scattering cross section. The authors measure the scattering intensities that connect two neutron-spin states in FeCr two-phase nanocrystalline alloy and, through the analysis of the spin-flip data, they obtain the (isotropic) longitudinal correlation function and the transversal contributions of the magnetization. This technique opens up the unique possibility for analyzing independently the three vector components of the bulk magnetization, and has the potential to push forward our understanding of magnetic interactions in nanostructures.