Techniques for revealing the structure of amorphous materials using neutrons

Studying amorphous structure with neutrons is a versatile and wide reaching technique. Typically, study of amorphous materials is limited by short to medium range order. However, complementary x-ray studies or isotopic substitution enabling difference calculations allow great detail to be gleaned. Amorphous materials studied by the author and collaborators include polymers, carbon-containing materials, nano-particles, and numerous glasses that are mostly a subset of window glass. A background on techniques and their complementary nature will be given as well as the structure of polyethylene oxide, transition metals and rare-earth's in silicate glasses, and studies on nano-crystalline graphite oxide and selenium nano-particles.