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New iron(ii) complex exhibiting the proton transfer coupled spin transition and easy single crystal formation was developed. The change of nuclear position with the spin transition was successfully detected by the neutron diffraction measurement.

Structural changes of the raffinose crystal on dehydration from the pentahydrate to the tetrahydrate were investigated by single-crystal time-of-flight neutron diffraction. It was revealed that during the dehydration, rearrangement occurs in the hydrogen bonds related to the lost water molecule, while the symmetry of the crystal structure is retained. The hydrogen-bonding status of raffinose pentahydrate and tetrahydrate were discussed comprehensively according to Jeffrey's hydrogen-bonding classification. It was shown that the water molecules are hydrogen bonded to the surrounding molecules by moderate O—H...O hydrogen bonds and weak C—H...O hydrogen bonds, and the number of these two types of hydrogen bonds determines the water molecules that are removed by dehydration. The lattice constant c showed a significant decrease on dehydration and further dehydration leads to loss of crystallinity of the raffinose crystals.

A spin-contrast-variation neutron powder diffractometry technique that extracts the structure factor of hydrogen atoms, i.e. the contribution of hydrogen atoms to a crystal's structure factor, has been developed. Crystals of L-glutamic acid were dispersed in a D-polystyrene matrix containing 4-methacryloyloxy-2,2,6,6,-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy to polarize their proton spins dynamically. The intensities of the diffraction peaks of the sample changed according to the proton polarization, and the structure factor of the hydrogen atoms was extracted from the proton-polarization-dependent intensities. This technique is expected to enable analyses of the structures of hydrogen-containing materials that are difficult to determine with conventional powder diffractometry.

An all-solid-state Li-ion secondary battery is a promising device that provides a solution to existing energy problems. However, it remains far from practical application mainly because of the lack of our basic understanding of the conduction mechanism of Li ions in Li-rich superionic conductors used as solid electrolytes in place of liquid electrolytes for conventional batteries. Herein, we studied the crystalline compound Li10GeP2S12 with the largest Li-ion conductivity thus far via a novel route based on a combination of single-crystal neutron diffraction experiments at low temperature and first-principles calculations, and found that a correlated migration of the densely packed Li ions governs the overall Li-ion conduction. The correlated migration mechanism provides us with guidelines on how to design efficient superionic conductors for more efficient batteries.

X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, and theoretical calculations were used to investigate the relationship between the optical properties and degree of protonation in acid-base complexes. We prepared five acid-base complexes by using a pyridine-modified pyrrolopyrrole derivative and salicylic acid. Two of the prepared acid-base complexes were polymorphs of guest-free crystals with green emission; the other three were guest-inclusion crystals with yellow emission containing CH2 Cl2 , CH2 Br2 , or C2 H4 Cl2 . The presence or absence of guests caused the emission to change color, altering the hydrogen bond strength between the acid-base complexes. Accurate N⋅⋅⋅H distances between the pyridyl moiety and the carboxy group over the temperature range 123 to 273 K were 1.40 A for the guest-free crystals and 1.25 A for the guest-inclusion crystals. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the complex relationship between photofunction and proton dynamics in acid-base complexes.

The hydrogen (H) isotope deuterium (D) has attracted special interest for the manufacture of silicon (Si) semiconductors, Si microchips, and optical fibers, as well as for the synthesis of isotopically labeled compounds. However, the efficient production of D or H deuteride in a controlled manner is challenging, and rational H isotope enrichment protocols are still lacking. Here, we demonstrate a highly efficient exchange reaction from H to D on the surface of nanocrystalline Si (n-Si). Fourfold enrichment of D termination was successfully achieved by dipping n-Si into a dilute D solution. By determining the surface-localized vibrational modes for H- and D-terminated n-Si using inelastic neutron scattering spectroscopy, we found that the physical mechanism responsible for this enrichment originates from the difference in the zero-point oscillation energies and entropies of the surface-localized vibrations. Theoretically, the extent of enrichment could be greatly enhanced (\ensuremath{\sim}15 times) using a gas-phase reaction. This enrichment protocol, which avoids the use of precious metal catalysts, opens the way for sustainable H-to-heavy H exchange reactions.

We investigate the quantum entangled state of two protons terminating on a silicon surface. The entangled states were detected using the surface vibrational dynamics of nanocrystalline silicon with inelastic neutron scattering spectroscopy. The protons are identical, therefore the harmonic oscillator parity constrains the spin degrees of freedom, forming strongly entangled states for all the energy levels of surface vibrations. Compared to the proton entanglement previously observed in hydrogen molecules, this entanglement is characterized by an enormous energy difference of 113 meV between the spin singlet ground state and the spin triplet excited state. We theoretically demonstrate the cascade transition of terahertz entangled photon pairs utilizing proton entanglement. A combination of proton qubits and a modern silicon technology can result in a natural unification of computing platforms, thereby achieving unprecedented levels of massive parallelism processing.

The synthesis of sandwich-shaped multinuclear silver complexes with planar penta- and tetranuclear wheel-shaped silver units and a central anion, [Agn(2-HPB)2(A-)](OTf-)n-1, nAgA, n = 4 or 5 and A- = OH- or F- or Cl-, is reported, along with complete spectroscopic and structural characterization. An NMR mechanistic study reveals that silver complexes were formed in the following order: 2Ag → 3AgH2O → 5AgOH → 4AgOH. The central hydroxides in 4AgOH and 5AgOH exhibit exotic physical properties due to the confined environment inside the complex. The size of these silver wheels can be tuned by changing the central anion or extracting/adding one silver atom. This study provides the facile way to synthesize discrete wheel-shaped multinuclear silver complexes and provides valuable insights into the dynamics of the self-assembly process.

Two-dimensional neutron detectors were developed for the extension of SENJU time-of-flight Laue single crystal neutron diffractometer in J-PARC MLF. The detectors are installed at the additional detector bank for the SENJU instrument. The detector module is made based on ZnS scintillator and wavelength-shifting fiber technology, where each detector module maintains a neutron-sensitive area of 256 × 256 mm with a pixel size of 4 × 4 mm. To meet the tight space limitation in the instrument, the detector was designed as compact as possible. The detector has a depth of 170 mm, which is about 40% smaller than that of the original SENJU detector. Moreover, new comparator electronics cards are implemented, which pick up signals with smaller heights and narrower time widths than the original ones. These cards help decrease in the applied PMT voltage and they improved count uniformity. All four produced detector exhibited similar detector performances: detection efficiency 50-60% for 2-A neutron, 60Co gamma-ray sensitivity 1×10−5, count uniformity 3-6%.

The correlation between magnetism and electric polarization in a chiral insulating magnet $\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{a}}_{3}\mathrm{F}{\mathrm{e}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{5}\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{l}}_{2}$ has been investigated. The temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility shows an anomaly at 564 K, suggesting the onset of antiferromagnetic order of $\mathrm{F}{\mathrm{e}}^{3+}$ moments. Electric polarization appears in a magnetic field below ${T}_{\mathrm{N}}$ due to the spin-direction-dependent metal-ligand hybridization. The direction of the electric polarization can be controlled in three-dimensional space by changing the direction of an external magnetic field. This compound also shows an antiferromagnetic-to-weak-ferromagnetic transition accompanied by a structural phase transition at 140 K.

In this article, the status of the STARGazer data-processing software and its data-processing algorithms are described in detail. The STARGazer data-processing software is used for neutron time-of-flight single-crystal diffraction data collected using the IBARAKI Biological Crystal Diffractometer., The STARGazer data-processing software is used for neutron time-of-flight (TOF) single-crystal diffraction data collected using the IBARAKI Biological Crystal Diffractometer (iBIX) at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). This software creates hkl intensity data from three-dimensional (x, y, TOF) diffraction data. STARGazer is composed of a data-processing component and a data-visualization component. The former is used to calculate the hkl intensity data. The latter displays the three-dimensional diffraction data with searched or predicted peak positions and is used to determine and confirm integration regions. STARGazer has been developed to make it easier to use and to obtain more accurate intensity data. For example, a profile-fitting method for peak integration was developed and the data statistics were improved. STARGazer and its manual, containing installation and data-processing components, have been prepared and provided to iBIX users. This article describes the status of the STARGazer data-processing software and its data-processing algorithms.

The crystal structure of polydiacetylene giant single crystal has been analyzed on the basis of the two different methods of wide-angle neutron diffraction and X-ray diffraction. The X-ray result gives us the total electron density distribution [ρ(x)] of polymer chain. The neutron result tells the positions of atomic nuclei, which can allow us to speculate the electron density distributions [ρ0(x)] around the nonbonded isolated atoms. As a result, the so-called bonded (or deformed) electron density Δρ(x) [≡ ρ(x) – ρ0(x) = ρX(x) – ρN(x)], i.e., the electron density distribution due to the conjugation among the covalently bonded atoms along the polymer chain, can be estimated using the two information obtained by the X-ray and neutron data analyses (the so-called X-ray–neutron subtraction (X–N) method). The present report is the first example of the application of X–N method to the synthetic polymer species. The Δρ(x) derived for polydiacetylene was found similar to that of the low-molecular-weight model co...

Multiple transition phenomena in divalent Eu compound EuAl$_4$ with the tetragonal structure were investigated via the single-crystal time-of-flight neutron Laue technique. At 30.0 K below a charge-density-wave (CDW) transition temperature of $T_{\rm CDW}$ = 140 K, superlattice peaks emerge near nuclear Bragg peaks described by an ordering vector $q_{\rm CDW}$=(0 0 ${\delta}_c$) with ${\delta}_c{\sim}$0.19. In contrast, magnetic peaks appear at $q_2 = ({\delta}_2 {\delta}_2 0)$ with ${\delta}_2$ = 0.085 in a magnetic-ordered phase at 13.5 K below $T_{\rm N1}$ = 15.4 K. By further cooling to below $T_{\rm N3}$ = 12.2 K, the magnetic ordering vector changes into $q_1 = ({\delta}_1 0 0)$ with ${\delta}_1$ = 0.17 at 11.5 K and slightly shifts to ${\delta}_1$ = 0.194 at 4.3 K. No distinct change in the magnetic Bragg peak was detected at $T_{\rm N2}$=13.2 K and $T_{\rm N4}$=10.0 K. The structural modulation below $T_{\rm CDW}$ with $q_{\rm CDW}$ is characterized by the absence of the superlattice peak in the (0 0 $l$) axis. As a similar CDW transition was observed in SrAl$_4$, the structural modulation with $q_{\rm CDW}$ could be mainly ascribed to the displacement of Al ions within the tetragonal $ab$-plane. Complex magnetic transitions are in stark contrast to a simple collinear magnetic structure in isovalent EuGa$_4$. This could stem from different electronic structures with the CDW transition between two compounds., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn

Three-dimensional arrays of dipolar rotors were constructed as single crystals of molecular gyrotops, which are macrocage molecules with a bridged dipolar rotor. In this study, we synthesized novel molecular gyrotops with a five-membered heteroring, i.e., furan-diyl (1), thiophene-diyl (2), and selenophene-diyl (3), and investigated the temperature-dependent orientation and rotation of the dipolar rotors inside the crystal. Unfortunately, furan derivative 1 did not crystallize; however, crystal structures of the other molecular gyrotops, i.e., 2 and 3, showed three-dimensional arrays of dipolar rotors. Thermal order–disorder transitions of the dipolar rotor orientation inside the crystal were observed in 2 and 3 with the transition temperature in selenophene derivative 3 being lower than that of thiophene derivative 2. This may be ascribed to subtle differences in the molecular structure, e.g., the intersection angle between two Si–C(aryl) bonds corresponding to the rotation axis. In accordance with the t...

We describe the encapsulation of mobile proton carriers into defect sites in nonporous coordination polymers (CPs). The proton carriers were encapsulated with high mobility and provided high proton conductivity at 150 °C under anhydrous conditions. The high proton conductivity and nonporous nature of the CP allowed its application as an electrolyte in a fuel cell. The defects and mobile proton carriers were investigated using solid-state NMR, XAFS, XRD, and ICP-AES/EA. On the basis of these analyses, we concluded that the defect sites provide space for mobile uncoordinated H3PO4, H2PO4(-), and H2O. These mobile carriers play a key role in expanding the proton-hopping path and promoting the mobility of protons in the coordination framework, leading to high proton conductivity and fuel cell power generation.

The crystal structure of an X-type hexaferrite Sr2Co2Fe28O46 was investigated by the x-ray and neutron diffraction methods for a single crystal. Sr2Co2Fe28O46 has the crystal structure described as...

The two-dimensional quadratic lattice magnet, bis(glycolato)cobalt(II) ([Co(HOCH2CO2)2]), showed antiferromagnetic ordering at 15.0 K and an abrupt increase in magnetisation at H = 22 600 Oe and 2 K, thereby acting as a metamagnet. Heat capacity measurements revealed that the associated entropy change ΔS around the transition temperature was evaluated to be 6.20 J K−1 mol−1 and that the Co(II) ion had the total angular momentum of J = 1/2 at low temperatures. Neutron diffraction studies suggested that the magnetic moment vectors of the Co(II) ions had an amplitude of 3.59μB and were not aligned in a fully antiparallel fashion to those of their neighbours, which caused canting between the magnetic moment vectors in the sheet. The canting angle was determined to be 7.1°. Canting induced net magnetisation in the sheet, but this magnetisation was cancelled between sheets. The magnetisations in the sheets were oriented parallel to the magnetic field at the critical magnetic field.

SENJU, a time-of-flight Laue-type single-crystal neutron diffractometer, was developed at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility of the Japan Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). Molecular structure analysis of a sub-millimetre taurine crystal and magnetic structure analysis of an MnF2 crystal were performed to evaluate its performance., SENJU is a new single-crystal time-of-flight neutron diffractometer installed at BL18 at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility of the Japan Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). The diffractometer was designed for precise crystal and magnetic structure analyses under multiple extreme sample environments such as low temperature, high pressure and high magnetic field, and for diffraction measurements of small single crystals down to 0.1 mm3 in volume. SENJU comprises three choppers, an elliptical shape straight supermirror guide, a vacuum sample chamber and 37 scintillator area detectors. The moderator-to-sample distance is 34.8 m, and the sample-to-detector distance is 800 mm. The wavelength of incident neutrons is 0.4–4.4 Å (first frame). Because short-wavelength neutrons are available and the large solid angle around the sample position is covered by the area detectors, a large reciprocal space can be simultaneously measured. Furthermore, the vacuum sample chamber and collimator have been designed to produce a very low background level. Thus, the measurement of a small single crystal is possible. As sample environment devices, a newly developed cryostat with a two-axis (ω and φ axes) goniometer and some extreme environment devices, e.g. a vertical-field magnet, high-temperature furnace and high-pressure cell, are available. The structure analysis of a sub-millimetre size (0.1 mm3) single organic crystal, taurine, and a magnetic structure analysis of the antiferromagnetic phase of MnF2 have been performed. These results demonstrate that SENJU can be a powerful tool to promote materials science research.

A newly synthesized one-dimensional (1D) hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) rhodium(II)-η(5)-semiquinone complex, [Cp*Rh(η(5)-p-HSQ-Me4)]PF6 ([1]PF6; Cp* = 1,2,3,4,5-pentamethylcyclopentadienyl; HSQ = semiquinone) exhibits a paraelectric-antiferroelectric second-order phase transition at 237.1 K. Neutron and X-ray crystal structure analyses reveal that the H-bonded proton is disordered over two sites in the room-temperature (RT) phase. The phase transition would arise from this proton disorder together with rotation or libration of the Cp* ring and PF6(-) ion. The relative permittivity εb' along the H-bonded chains reaches relatively high values (ca., 130) in the RT phase. The temperature dependence of (13)C CP/MAS NMR spectra demonstrates that the proton is dynamically disordered in the RT phase and that the proton exchange has already occurred in the low-temperature (LT) phase. Rate constants for the proton exchange are estimated to be 10(-4)-10(-6) s in the temperature range of 240-270 K. DFT calculations predict that the protonation/deprotonation of [1](+) leads to interesting hapticity changes of the semiquinone ligand accompanied by reduction/oxidation by the π-bonded rhodium fragment, producing the stable η(6)-hydroquinone complex, [Cp*Rh(3+)(η(6)-p-H2Q-Me4)](2+) ([2](2+)), and η(4)-benzoquinone complex, [Cp*Rh(+)(η(4)-p-BQ-Me4)] ([3]), respectively. Possible mechanisms leading to the dielectric response are discussed on the basis of the migration of the protonic solitons comprising of [2](2+) and [3], which would be generated in the H-bonded chain.

Apatite-type rare-earth silicates are attractive materials with extensive applications such as in solid-oxide fuel cells due to their extremely high oxide-ion conductivity below 600 °C. The presence of interstitial (excess) oxygens has been believed to be responsible for the high conductivity of apatite-type materials. On the contrary, the present study clearly reveals the presence of Si vacancies □ instead of interstitial oxygens in La-rich La9.565(Si5.826□0.174)O26 using single-crystal neutron and X-ray diffraction analyses, density measurements and ab initio electronic calculations. Higher mobility (i.e., lower activation energy) of oxide ions along the c axis is a major reason for the high oxide-ion conductivity of La9.565(Si5.826□0.174)O26 when compared with that of La9.333Si6O26. Excess La cations yield overbonded channel oxygens, leading to their highly anisotropic atomic displacements and high oxygen mobility along the c axis. This novel finding of the overbonding effect without interstitial oxygens will open a new window for the design of better ion conductors.

Using inelastic neutron-scattering spectroscopy, we have identified twin-split scattering spectra in hydrogen-terminated nanocrystalline silicon. We show that this duality originates from the cooperative motion of hydrogen and silicon. Our formalism for the inelastic neutron-scattering spectrum, which is derived from the Hermite orthogonal wave functions in terms of the normal coordinates, elucidates the physical origin of the observed quantum twin spectra and predicts the possible occurrence of this behavior in other materials such as metal hydrides.

The nuclear and magnetic structure and full magnon dispersions of yttrium iron garnet Y$_3$Fe$_5$O$_{12}$ have been studied by neutron scattering. The refined nuclear structure is distorted to a trigonal space group of $R\bar{3}$. The highest-energy dispersion extends up to 86 meV. The observed dispersions are reproduced by a simple model with three nearest-neighbor-exchange integrals between 16$a$ (octahedral) and 24$d$ (tetrahedral) sites, $J_{aa}$, $J_{ad}$, and $J_{dd}$, which are estimated to be 0.00$\pm$0.05, $-$2.90$\pm$0.07, and $-$0.35$\pm$0.08 meV, respectively. The lowest-energy dispersion below 14 meV exhibits a quadratic dispersion as expected from ferromagnetic magnons. The imaginary part of $q$-integrated dynamical spin susceptibility $\chi$"($E$) exhibits a square-root energy-dependence in the low energies. The magnon density of state is estimated from the $\chi$"($E$) obtained on an absolute scale. The value is consistent with a single polarization mode for the magnon branch expected theoretically., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures

Magnetism in EuNiIn4 is studied using specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, 151Eu Mossbauer spectroscopy, and neutron diffraction experiments. The specific heat exhibited two magne...

The detector system of SENJU —a single-crystal time-of-flight neutron diffractometer—is described. SENJU is the first diffractometer employing a large-area two-dimensional wavelength-shifting fiber-based scintillator detector at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex. Thirty-seven detectors were installed in the instrument to cover a scattering angle of 30%. The detector modules exhibited a detector efficiency of 37–47±1% (mean±standard deviation) for thermal neutrons, a 60 Co gamma-ray sensitivity of 1.4–5.1±0.1×10 −6 , a background count rate of 2.1–3.8±1.0×10 −4 cps/cm 2 and a tolerance to stray magnetic fields up to 120 G. The detector exhibited stable performance under the operating conditions used, such as stable count rates over 400 days and a count temperature coefficient of −0.01±0.02%/°C at around 20 °C. The detector system and its performance metrics are presented together with the specific detector design.

The time-of-flight neutron single-crystal diffractometer iBIX at the next-generation neutron source J-PARC has been upgraded and is available for user experiments on protein samples in particular. Neutron structure analysis of a standard protein sample was carried out in order to evaluate the performance of iBIX., The IBARAKI biological crystal diffractometer, iBIX, is a high-performance time-of-flight neutron single-crystal diffractometer for elucidating mainly the hydrogen, protonation and hydration structures of biological macromolecules in various life processes. Since the end of 2008, iBIX has been available to users’ experiments supported by Ibaraki University. Since August 2012, an upgrade of the 14 existing detectors has begun and 16 new detectors have been installed for iBIX. The total measurement efficiency of the present diffractometer has been improved by one order of magnitude from the previous one with the increasing of accelerator power. In December 2012, commissioning of the new detectors was successful, and collection of the diffraction dataset of ribonucrease A as a standard protein was attempted in order to estimate the performance of the upgraded iBIX in comparison with previous results. The resolution of diffraction data, equivalence among intensities of symmetry-related reflections and reliability of the refined structure have been improved dramatically. iBIX is expected to be one of the highest-performance neutron single-crystal diffractometers for biological macromolecules in the world.

The neutron crystal structure of human transthyretin is presented., Transthyretin (TTR) is a tetrameric protein. TTR misfolding and aggregation are associated with human amyloid diseases. Dissociation of the TTR tetramer is believed to be the rate-limiting step in the amyloid fibril formation cascade. Low pH is known to promote dissociation into monomer and the formation of amyloid fibrils. In order to reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying pH sensitivity and structural stabilities of TTR, neutron diffraction studies were conducted using the IBARAKI Biological Crystal Diffractometer with the time-of-flight method. Crystals for the neutron diffraction experiments were grown up to 2.5 mm3 for four months. The neutron crystal structure solved at 2.0 Å revealed the protonation states of His88 and the detailed hydrogen-bond network depending on the protonation states of His88. This hydrogen-bond network is involved in monomer–monomer and dimer–dimer interactions, suggesting that the double protonation of His88 by acidification breaks the hydrogen-bond network and causes the destabilization of the TTR tetramer. Structural comparison with the X-ray crystal structure at acidic pH identified the three amino acid residues responsible for the pH sensitivity of TTR. Our neutron model provides insights into the molecular stability related to amyloidosis.

Mn$_2$VAl Heusler alloy films were epitaxially grown on MgO(100) single crystal substrates by means of ultra-high-vacuum magnetron sputtering. A2 and L2$_1$ type Mn$_2$VAl order was controlled by the deposition temperatures. A2-type Mn$_2$VAl films showed no spontaneous magnetization and L2$_1$-type Mn$_2$VAl films showed ferrimagnetic behavior with a maximum saturation magnetization of 220 emu/cm$^3$ at room temperature. An antiferromagnetic reflection was observed with neutron diffraction at room temperature for an A2-type Mn$_2$VAl film deposited at 400$^\circ$C. A bilayer sample of the antiferromagnetic A2 Mn$_2$VAl and Fe showed an exchange bias of 120 Oe at 10 K.