T. Bruckel et al., 1ST OBSERVATION OF BULK MAGNETIC SCATTERING USING HIGH-ENERGY X-RAYS, Acta crystallographica. Section A, Foundations of crystallography, 49, 1993, pp. 679-682
Today, the most powerful methods for the investigation of magnetic str
uctures are magnetic neutron diffraction and synchrotron-X-ray scatter
ing in the energy range 3 - 15 keV. This paper reports the first succe
ssful experiment to exploit a new technique: the magnetic diffraction
of hard X-rays with energies exceeding 80 keV. This technique combines
some of the advantages of each of the aforementioned methods: namely
high Q-space resolution (10(-4) angstrom-1 radial and 10(-5) angstrom-
1 tangential) and bulk sensitivity (absorption length >> 1 mm). It is
shown that, compared to nominally 10 keV X-ray scattering, enhancement
factors of several orders of magnitude can be obtained for the magnet
ic signal, owing to the increase in penetration depth. The magnetic cr
oss section for these very hard X-rays is discussed, the new technique
is compared with the existing methods and a preliminary experiment on
MnF2 is reported.