Providing a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the theory and applications of slow-neutron scattering, this detailed book equips readers with the fundamental principles of neutron studies, including the background and evolving development of neutron sources, facility design, neutron scattering instrumentation and techniques, and applications in materials phenomena. Drawing on the authors' extensive experience in this field, this text explores the implications of slow-neutron research in greater depth and breadth than ever before in an accessible yet rigorous manner suitable for both students and researchers in the fields of physics, biology, and materials engineering. Through pedagogical examples and in-depth discussion, readers will be able to grasp the full scope of the field of neutron scattering, from theoretical background through to practical, scientific applications.

The scattering of slow neutron beams provides unique, non-destructive, quantitative information on the structure and dynamics of materials of interest in physics, chemistry, materials science, biology, geology, and other fields. Liquid hydrogen is a widely-used neutron moderator medium, and an accurate knowledge of its slow neutron cross section is essential for the design and optimization of intense slow neutron sources. In particular the rapid drop of the slow neutron scattering cross section of liquid parahydrogen below 15 meV, which renders the moderator volume transparent to the neutron energies of most interest for scattering studies, is therefore especially interesting and important. We have placed an upper bound on the total cross section and the scattering cross section for slow neutrons with energies between 0.43 meV and 16.1 meV on liquid hydrogen at 15.6 K using neutron transmission measurements on the hydrogen target of the NPDGamma collaboration at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At 1 meV this new upper bound is a factor of 3 below the data from previous work which has been used in the design of liquid hydrogen moderators at slow neutron sources. We describe our measurements, compare them with previous work, and discuss the implications for designing more intense slow neutron sources.