Page 61 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Chapter 3 - Why invest so much money in a source of neutrons?
a particularly suitable probe. There are hence a great number of applications in the field of condensed matter studies, even if there are also applications in nuclear physics, as well as fundamental physics (quantum physics). For condensed matter studies many techniques are used (X-rays, NMR, Raman spectroscopy, etc.) and one can ask why is it necessary to add neutrons to these; quite simply because neutrons see aspects which cannot be detected
by these other methods. A user community has evolved who employ other techniques in their home laboratories, but who
then call on neutrons to complete and clarify their vision of the samples under study. In 1997 this community of potential users numbered more than 4000 in Europe of whom more than 1000 come year after year to use neutrons at the reactor of the ILL. The users are required to submit a proposal for their experiment. These proposals are reviewed twice a year by committees of scientists from outside the ILL. Due to an overload of demand for the instruments only one out of every two can be accepted. [2018 addition: This overload factor has remained quite stable up to the present date.] I will review the various areas of uses of neutrons. Some of the examples here are taken from recent experiments, much later than those prompting the decision to construct the source.
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