Anomalous neutron Compton scattering in metallic hydrides: new experiments

The time-of-flight spectra of the neutron Compton scattering of solid palla dium hydrides were measured at room temperature. This experiment, which was motivated by previous measurements on liquid H2O/D2O mixtures as mel as on niobium hydrides, showed anomalous behaviour of the total neutron scatteri ng cross sections. Whereas at small scattering angles the scattering cross- section ratio for protons with respect to that for palladium corresponded t o conventional theory, a strong decrease was observed for increasing angles . When converting the angle dependences into scattering time dependences bo th niobium hydrides and palladium hydrides give the same result, although h aving different crystallographic features. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.