Spin-Wave Scattering of Polarized Neutrons from Nickel and Cobalt

The polarized neutron technique provides a very powerful method of distinguishing ferromagnetic spin wave scattering from other elastic and inelastic intensity components. The diffraction method in which the size of the scattering surface is measured as a function of offset angle from the Bragg position has been employed to investigate the magnon scattering from nickel and cobalt single crystals. In the case of cobalt, the observed inelastic scattering proved to be entirely of magnon character for misset angles greater than 3.5°. For nickel, the constant D in the spin wave dispersion relation E=Dq2 was measured to be 360±75 meV Å2.