A camera, a stethoscope, an x-ray machine and a radarscope... What
do these things have in common? They are all instruments used to
record or investigate. They use various kinds of waves (radiation)
to do this—respectively, light, sound, high velocity electron
and electromagnetic radiation. They have various properties that
make them complementary tools. For example, the camera cannot help
you see what is on the other side of an opaque wall, but the other
three can. Armed with these four tools, you can do a great deal
of investigating. That would be some detective agency.
But what if we want to investigate materials or processes at a
much smaller, more fundamental level, say the molecular or atomic
level? Then the neutron is your guide. At MURR we use neutron scattering
instruments and techniques to define—or characterize—a wide range
of materials. With these instruments and techniques, we can observe
how neutrons behave when they collide with and scatter from the
materials under investigation. We focus a beam of neutrons on the
sample and the specially designed instruments record their behavior:
which way do they go? how fast are they traveling? do they change
direction or speed on impact? All this information helps us characterize
the material: its molecular structure, its surfaces and interfaces,
its electronic and magnetic properties, its stresses and strains.
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University of Missouri-Columbia
