Determination of the phonon spectrum from coherent neutron scattering by polycrystals

As proposed by Bredovet al. 2, 3] the phonon spectrum can be obtained approximately from coherent neutron scattering by polycrystals if suitable averages over scattering angles are considered. The accuracy of this method is estimated by comparison with analytical results for simple lattice models (discussed here in particular for Aluminium). The errors are about 5% for low order moments and about 50% near van Hove singularities for “cold” neutrons (wavelength of the order of the nearest-neighbour-distance).