Technique During a SANS experiment a beam of neutrons is directed at a sample, which can be an aqueous solution, a solid, a powder, or a crystal. The neutrons are elastically scattered by nuclear interaction with the nuclei or interaction with magnetic momentum of unpaired electrons. In X-ray scattering, photons interact with the electronic cloud so the bigger the element, the bigger the effect is. In neutron scattering, neutrons interact with nuclei and the interaction depends on the isotope; some light elements like deuterium show similar scattering cross section as heavy elements like Pb.
Technique During a SANS experiment a beam of neutrons is directed at a sample, which can be an aqueous solution, a solid, a powder, or a crystal. The neutrons are elastically scattered by nuclear interaction with the nuclei or interaction with magnetic mo.mentum of unpaired electrons. In X-ray scattering, photons interact with the electronic cloud so the bigger the element, the bigger the effect is In neutron scattering, neutrons interact with nuclei and the interaction depends on the isotope; some light elements like deuterium. show similar scattering cross section as heavy elements like Pb