High-Pressure Sciences of Hydrogen Compounds and Expectations for the Pulsed Neutron Source

Abstract

Neutron is a complementary probe to X-ray for material sciences at high pressure, especially for hydrogen compounds for which X-ray is less powerful than for the heavier elements. In addition, using the neutron probe it is easy to distinguish neighboring elements in the periodic table which is also difficult with X-ray. A spallation neutron source of new generation is now being constructed in Tokai, Ibaraki Pref. as a part of the J-PARC project. A proposal to build a dedicated high-pressure beamline at J-PARC was submitted, which has been successfully accepted in 2005 after the peer-review. In this article, we review some examples of scientific targets on material sciences of hydrogen compounds at high pressure, which will be newly revealed with this powerful neutron source and beamline.