Neutron Scattering

In the lectures we have talked about X-ray diffraction a great deal, but the use of neutrons as probes of lattice structure was also mentioned. Neutron diffraction is used where X-rays are unable to give an accurate picture of the location of atoms. X-rays are usually scattered by the electron cloud, and more strongly for atoms with more electrons, hence, for atoms with relatively few electrons, the X-rays will not strongly interact and so the amount of scattering will be less. Neutrons are scattered by the atomic nucleus, as they do not interact with the electron cloud, and the intensity of the diffraction peaks is different for different isotopes.