Extraction of hydrogen location in molecular crystals in spin-contrast-variation neutron powder diffractometry

Miura, Daisuke*; Kumada, Takayuki   ; Iwata, Takahiro*

We have developed the spin-contrast-variation neutron powder diffractometry to observe hydrogen atoms in a crystalline sample by polarized neutron and polarized proton in the crystal. L-glutamic acid crystals were dispersed in a deuterated polystyrene matrix containing a polarizing agent. The intensities of the diffraction peaks of the sample changed according to the proton polarization. The spin-contrast-variation neutron powder diffractometry can extract diffraction from hydrogen atoms because of the variation of peak intensities as a function of the proton polarization. This technique is expected to enable analyses of the structures of hydrogen-containing materials that are difficult to determine with conventional powder diffractometry.