NEUTRON THREE-AXIS SPECTROMETRY AT THE ADVENT OF 21ST CENTURY

The implementation of multiplexing techniques combined with advances in neutron optics make the neutron three-axis spectrometers (TAS) an efficient tool to map inelastic response from single crystals over momentum transfer ranges comparable to the size of a single Brillouin zone. Thanks to recent progress in polarization techniques such experiments can be combined relatively easily with neutron polarization analysis, which does not only provide unambiguous separation of response corresponding to structural and magnetic degrees of freedom, but permits a quantitative analysis of the magnetic response anisotropy, often of crucial importance to test theoretical predictions. In the forthcoming decade we therefore expect a further development of the complementary use, rather than competition, of the reactor-based TAS's with time-of-flight (TOF) instruments for single crystal spectroscopy at the existing (ISIS) as well as at the newly built (SNS, J-PARK) pulsed sources.