PSI Master School - Introducing Photons, Neutrons and Muons for Materials Characterisation

The aim of the course is that the students acquire a basic understanding on the interaction of photons, neutrons and muons with matter and how one can use these as tools to solve specific problems. The students will also acquire hands-on experience by designing and performing an experiment in a large scale facility of PSI (Swiss Light Source, Swiss Spallation Neutron Source, Swiss Muon Source).

This is a one-week block course held at the end of each spring semester. Registration at both the ETH Zurich and the PSI websites are mandatory

The course runs for one week. It takes place at the campus of the Paul Scherrer Institute. The morning consists of introductory lectures on the use of photons, neutrons and muons for materials characterization. In the afternoon tours of the large-scale facilities of PSI (Swiss Light Source, Swiss Spallation Neutron Source, Swiss Muon Source, Swiss Free Electron Laser), are foreseen, as well as in-depth visits to some of the instruments. At the end of the week, the students are required to give an oral presentation about a scientific topic involving the techniques discussed. Time for the presentation preparations is allocated in the afternoon.

• Interaction of photons, neutrons and muons with matter
• Production of photons, neutrons and muons
• Experimental setups: optics and detectors
• Crystal symmetry, Bragg’s law, reciprocal lattice, structure factors
• Elastic and inelastic scattering with neutrons and photons
• X-ray absorption spectroscopy, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism
• Polarized neutron scattering for the study of magnetic materials
• Imaging techniques using x-rays and neutrons
• Introduction to muon spin rotation
• Applications of muon spin rotation