The crucial role of water in the engine of life have encouraged many researchers in studying, both theoretically and experimentally, the possible "structure" of water. Many properties of water have been related to the interplay between two distinct and interconverting structural species, namely the low-density water (LDW) and the high-density water (HDW). Supported by the results obtained with ...

Measurements of the low-energy electronic structure in Gd2PdSi3 and Tb2PdSi3 by means of angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy reveal a Fermi surface consisting of an electron barrel at the Gamma point surrounded by spindle-shaped electron pockets originating from the same band. The calculated momentum-dependent RKKY coupling strength is peaked at the 1/2GammaK wave vector, which coincides ...

To observe the ionized status of the amino acid residues in proteins at different pH (protein pH titration in the crystalline state) by neutron diffraction, hen egg-white lysozyme was crystallized over a wide pH range (2.5-8.0). Crystallization phase diagrams at pH 2.5, 6.0 and 7.5 were determined. At pH < 4.5 the border between the metastable region and the nucleation region shifted to the lef...

Large meteorite impacts cause great changes to geologic features on Earth, ranging from cratering and ejecta blankets to phase transformations in minerals. In this report we describe the effect of a shock wave on the crystallographic orientation of quartz crystals in quartzite from the Vredefort impact site in South Africa. Preferred orientation of bulk quartzite samples was measured by time-of...

MnCoGe-based compounds undergo a giant negative thermal expansion (NTE) during the martensitic structural transition from Ni2In-type hexagonal to TiNiSi-type orthorhombic structure. High-resolution neutron diffraction experiments revealed that the expansion of unit cell volume can be as large as ΔV/V ∼ 3.9%. The optimized compositions with concurrent magnetic and structural transitions have bee...

The atomic pair distribution functions (PDF) of four powder samples of YBa2Cu3O6+x (x=0.25, 0.45, 0.65, 0.94) at 15 K have been measured by means of pulsed neutron diffraction. The PDF is modelled using a full-profile fitting approach to yield structural parameters. In contrast to earlier XAFS work we find no evidence of a split apical oxygen site. However, a slightly improved fit over the aver...

The laminar perovskite Ca3Ru2O7 naturally forms ferromagnetic double layers of alternating moment directions, as in the spin-valve superlattices. The mechanism of the huge magnetoresistive effect in the material has been controversial due to a lack of clear understanding of various magnetic phases and phase transitions. In this neutron diffraction study in a magnetic field, we identify four dif...

Neutron diffraction measurements have been performed on polycrystalline Fe1−xO swüstited up to 20.3 GPa using a large-volume moissanite anvil cell at room temperature to examine the existence of long-range magnetic ordering in the high-pressure rhombohedral phase of the material. This investigation is crucial for understanding the nature of high-pressure phase transitions in Fe1−xO. Low tempera...

Fe/Mn is a model system in which to study exchange bias, since the antiferromagnetic (AF) Mn layers are believed to have uncompensated moments with all spins aligned in the plane and parallel to those of the Fe. We have determined the microscopic AF ordering at the interfaces using single-crystal neutron diffraction. An unexpected magnetic structure is obtained, with out-of-plane Mn moments per...

2014 The smectic layer spacings (d) have been determined for a number of cyano derivatives which have an anomalous d/l ratio of ~ 1.4, where l is the molecular length. It is shown that the quantity (d 2014 l) is directly related to the length of the alkyl or alkoxy tail of the molecule but is not simply related to the length of the aromatic core. This is consistent with a bimolecular layer stru...