Search

The article focuses on a collaborative project between India's Department of Science and Technology and the United Kingdom's Science and Technology Facility Council, aimed at enhancing access to neutron and muon facilities at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory for research in nanoscience and technology. Topics covered include quantum materials, energy, advanced engineering, and healthcare, with the project fostering researcher development, instrumental resources, and international collaborations.

Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) are two key tools to probe the dynamic and static structure factors, respectively, in soft matter. Usually, DLS and SANS measurements are performed separately, in different laboratories, on different samples, and at different times. However, this methodology has particular disadvantages for a large variety of soft materials, which exhibit a high sensitivity to small changes in fundamental parameters, such as waiting times, concentration, pH, and ionic strength. Here, we report on a new portable DLS-SANS apparatus that allows one to simultaneously measure both the microscopic dynamics (through DLS) and the static structure (through SANS) on the same sample. The apparatus has been constructed as a collaboration between two laboratories, each an expert in one of the scattering methods, and was commissioned on the LOQ and ZOOM SANS instruments at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source, U.K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]