ISIS - A NEW POWERFUL TOOL FOR HYDROGEN-BONDING STUDIES

The particular characteristics of its interaction with atoms has made the neutron a particularly powerful probe of hydrogen-bonded systems. Over the past two decades, the main source of neutrons for such studies has been fission reactors, where neutrons are produced in continuous beams by the fission of uranium. Over the past few years, however, particle-accelerator-based pulsed sources of neutrons have become available, the most powerful of which is ISIS, a pulsed-spallation neutron source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory of the U.K. Science and Engineering Research Council. The characteristics of the neutrons produced by ISIS allow condensed matter neutron science to be performed that would be difficult, inefficient, or impossible on a reactor source. Present and possible future applications of pulsed-spallation neutrons to the study of the structure and dynamics of hydrogen-bonding systems are outlined. © 1990.