Two types of ultra high energy resolution neutron scattering instruments, the backscattering spectrometer and the spin echo spectrometer, are described. Examples of the types of research which can be done with these instruments are given and plans for a cold neutron backscattering spectrometer which will be built in the NIST Cold Neutron Research Facility (CNRF) are discussed. It is hoped that ...

We report inelastic neutron scattering measurements and random phase approximation calculations of the dispersive crystal field excitations of UPd(3). The measured spectra at lower energies agree with those calculated using quadrupolar interaction parameters deduced from bulk and x-ray scattering measurements. The more intense excitations arising from the hexagonal sites were used to obtain exc...

We studied magnetic excitations in a low-temperature ferroelectric phase of the multiferroic YMn(2)O(5) using inelastic neutron scattering (INS). We identify low-energy magnon modes and establish a correspondence between the magnon peaks observed by INS and electromagnon peaks observed in optical absorption [A. B. Sushkov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 027202 (2007).]. Furthermore, we explain the...

In this paper we report a methodology for calculating the inelastic neutron scattering spectrum of homonuclear diatomic molecules confined within nano-cavities of spherical symmetry. The method is based on the expansion of the confining potential into multipoles of the coupled rotational and translational angular variables. The Hamiltonian and the INS transition probabilities are evaluated anal...

The advantages and disadvantages of the use of direct geometry spectrometers for molecular spectroscopy and catalysis studies are described. We show that both direct and indirect geometry INS spectrometers are important tools for the study of industrially relevant areas such as catalysis, proton conductors and gas separation. We propose a novel hybrid instrument, Cerberus, that would offer high...

An inelastic neutron scattering experiment has been performed on supercritical water at high momentum transfer, up to 90 Å, in order to study single proton dynamics. The value of the proton mean kinetic energy has been extracted in the framework of the impulse approximation. The anisotropy of the proton momentum distribution inside a single water molecule is discussed. The extracted experimenta...

The breakdown of magnons, the quasiparticles of magnetic systems, has rarely been seen. By using an inelastic neutron scattering technique, we report the observation of spontaneous magnon decay in multiferroic LuMnO3, a simple two dimensional Heisenberg triangular lattice antiferromagnet, with large spin S=2. The origin of this rare phenomenon lies in the nonvanishing cubic interaction between ...

The temperature dependence of the phonon spectra of a-uranium has recently been measured by inelastic neutron scattering and inelastic X-ray scattering. Although there is little evidence of any anharmonicity, the phonon shows some softening in the optic modes at the zone boundary. Furthermore, an extra mode forms at high temperatures, which is incompatible with a structure composed of a monocli...

We have successfully determined the hitherto unknown sign of the B(4)(4) Stevens crystal-field parameter of the tetragonal heavy-fermion compound CeCu(2)Si(2) using vector q-dependent nonresonant inelastic x-ray scattering experiments at the cerium N(4,5) edge. The observed difference between the two different directions, q∥[100] and q∥[110], is due to the anisotropy of the crystal-field ground...

Photon and neutron inelastic scattering spectrometers are microscopes for imaging condensed matter dynamics on very small length and time scales. Inelastic X-ray scattering permitted the first quantitative studies of picosecond nanoscale dynamics in disordered systems almost 20 years ago. However, the nature of the liquid-glass transition still remains one of the great unsolved problems in cond...