A high-flux upgrade for the BRISP spectrometer at ILL.

To date, the BRISP spectrometer represents the state-of-the-art for every instrument aiming to perform Brillouin neutron scattering. Exploiting accurate ray-tracing McStas simulations, we investigate an improved configuration of the BRISP primary spectrometer to provide a higher flux at the sample position, while preserving all the present capabilities of the instrument. This configuration is based on a neutron guide system and is designed to fit the instrument platform with no modifications of the secondary spectrometer. These evaluations show that this setup can achieve a flux gain factor ranging from 3 to 6, depending on the wavelength. This can expand the experimental possibilities of BRISP towards smaller samples, possibly using also complex sample environments.

Communication: are metallic glasses different from other glasses? A closer look at their high frequency dynamics.

Using high resolution inelastic x-ray scattering we studied the collective dynamics of the Pd(77)Si(16.5)Cu(6.5) metallic glass, focusing on the energy-momentum region where the boson peak appears. The dispersion relation and the width of the acoustic excitations are determined showing how the longitudinal acoustic modes maintain their dispersive character for frequencies well above the boson peak frequencies. Moreover, we prove that close to these frequencies there is a softening of the apparent sound speed indicating a failure of the Debye continuum approximation at the boson peak frequencies and challenging previous results on other metallic glasses.

High-frequency dynamics in metallic glasses.

Using inelastic x-ray scattering we studied the collective dynamics of the glassy alloy Ni33Zr67 in the first pseudo-Brillouin-zone, an energy-momentum region still unexplored in metallic glasses. We determine key properties such as the momentum transfer dependence of the sound velocity and of the acoustic damping, discussing the results in the general context of recently proposed pictures for acoustic dynamics in glasses. Specifically, we demonstrate the existence in this strong glass of well defined (in the Ioffe-Regel sense) acoustic-like excitations well above the boson peak energy.

Brillouin neutron scattering in heavy water: evidence for two-mode collective dynamics.

A high resolution (1.5 meV) inelastic neutron scattering experiment was carried out, aiming at an accurate investigation of the high frequency and low momentum dynamic response in heavy water. The experimental data confirm the existence of a dispersionless mode, besides the ordinary longitudinal collective dynamics. A simplified model, based on the interaction of two vibrational branches, is proposed to interpret the observed features of the dynamic spectra. The validity extent of this scheme is proved by applying it to room temperature neutron and x-ray data, to temperature and pressure dependent x-ray data, and to room temperature neutron data of vibrational density of states. The overall successfull results provided by this model, in conjunction with the combined analysis of the x-ray and neutron data on collective dynamics, enable a deeper insight into the complex mechanisms of the water dynamics and provide a simple phenomenological explanation for the transition from ordinary to fast sound.