Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) probes structure in materials on the nanometer (10^-9 m) to micrometer (10^-6 m) scale. Structure on this length scale is critical to the performance of advanced engineering materials. For example, the toughness of high impact plastics depends on the admixture of stiff and flexible segments of polymer molecules on the nano-to-micro scale. Nanometer/micrometer structure is also crucial to biological processes in cells, to the storage of information on magnetic disks, to the hardness of steels and superalloys, to the conduction of current in superconductors, and many other materials properties.

In SANS, the neutron wavelength, λ , and scattering angle, θ , determine the length scale probed through the relationship

Through the use of cold (i.e. long wavelength) neutrons and tight beam collimation, the SANS instruments at the NCNR are able to probe structure on a length scale, d, ranging from 1 nm to nearly 10,000 nm.

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