List of Tutorials
All tutorials will take place on Sunday, July 12.
Polarized Neutron Reflectometry: Principles, Instrumentation & Depth Profiling
Tutorial Leaders: Asmaa Qdemat & Haile Ambaye
Polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) is a uniquely powerful technique for resolving depth-dependent magnetic and structural profiles in thin films, multilayers, and heterostructures. This half-day tutorial will provide a comprehensive introduction to PNR, spanning fundamental scattering concepts through practical experimental implementation and quantitative data analysis.
The tutorial will place particular emphasis on PNR capabilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with examples drawn from the Magnetism Reflectometer at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). Topics will include neutron polarization and spin analysis, experimental geometries, measurement strategies for vector magnetization profiles, and the separation of nuclear and magnetic scattering length densities. Practical considerations such as sample environment selection, field protocols, resolution effects, and common experimental pitfalls will be discussed.
Participants will be guided through model-based data analysis approaches using representative ORNL datasets, highlighting how PNR complements bulk magnetometry (e.g., SQUID) and grazing-incidence scattering techniques. Case studies will include magnetic thin films, oxides, and nanostructured or curved thin-film systems, illustrating how PNR provides direct insight into interfacial magnetism and depth-dependent magnetic textures.
This tutorial is aimed at graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and experienced neutron users who are new to PNR or seeking a deeper physical and practical understanding of polarized reflectometry experiments at ORNL.
Duration: 4 hours (afternoon)
USANS: A Practical Guide
Tutorial Leaders: Gernot Rother & Henrich Frielinghaus
This tutorial will discuss how to design and perform a USANS experiment, with examples. Topics covered include sample requirements, data desmearing, fitting smeared models in addition to an overview of the SNS USANS instrument and available sample environments. Examples and conditions for multiple scattering will be discussed.
Duration: 4 hours (morning)
Correlation Analysis in Neutron Scattering: Bridging Diffraction & Spectroscopy
Tutorial Leaders: Raphael Hermann & Arianna Minelli
This tutorial explores the potential of correlation analysis in time-of-flight (TOF) neutron experiments, providing a unified view of diffraction and spectroscopy. We will focus on single-crystal neutron scattering at instruments such as CORELLI, as well as concepts relevant to future correlation-spectroscopy beamlines. The tutorial will introduce correlation-spectroscopy methods and practical data-analysis workflows, including 3D-ΔPDF analysis and visualization aspects using NeuXtalViz.
Participants will learn how to design experiments and apply hands-on analysis strategies to integrate thermal and magnetic diffuse scattering, generate and interpret 3D-ΔPDF, and identify resolution limits and signatures of inelastic contributions. The workshop will also provide an overview of correlation-chopper techniques and technology—including electronically driven polarization choppers—highlighting how these approaches enable advanced measurement strategies that combine structural and dynamical information. The session will include a science-motivation overview, practical guidance on correlation-chopper considerations for experiment design, hands-on data-analysis workflows, a survey of correlation-chopper modalities (including electronically driven polarization choppers), and discussion of how these capabilities support interpretation of thermal and magnetic diffuse scattering, concluding with guidance on resolution limits and identifying inelastic contributions in cross-correlation TOF datasets.
Duration: 4 hours (morning)
Data Processing for Powder Total Scattering & Laue Crystal Diffraction
Tutorial Leaders: Yuanpeng Zhang & Zachary Morgan
This hands-on workshop brings together practical data processing procedures and software tools for both powder and single-crystal neutron scattering, emphasizing how careful reduction, processing, and visualization choices enable reliable scientific conclusions. For neutron total scattering users, the workshop provides experiences in data processing, the importance of which is usually underestimated during data analysis. In many cases, difficulty in data analysis or potential wrong conclusions originates from a lack of understanding of the data processing step, and data can be improperly processed. Though data reduction and processing is expected to be done on the instrument team side, the practical complexity of total scattering data—in terms of scaling data onto the absolute level and sample-specific contributions—means careful post-processing is often unavoidable, especially when performing reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) modeling. Participants will be taught the importance of each data post-processing step and trained in how to perform post-processing of their data.
In addition, the workshop introduces modern workflows for Laue single-crystal neutron diffraction data reduction using NeuXtalViz with TOPAZ datasets. Participants will learn practical approaches for peak finding, three-dimensional integration, UB matrix determination, peak placement, and experiment planning, with particular attention to reciprocal-space volumetric analysis for data collection and order parameter studies within a GUI-driven environment. The session emphasizes interactive 3D visualization as a decision tool, highlighting recently developed software tools available at SNS single-crystal diffractometers and demonstrating how advanced visualization techniques can be used to assess crystal quality, evaluate sample alignment, and optimize data-collection strategies. Attendees will work through refinable example datasets designed to realistic experimental challenges, with guided exercises that mirror the complete workflow from experiment planning to data reduction used for TOPAZ experiments. This practical tutorial is intended for both newcomers seeking exposure to neutron scattering data-processing tools in preparation for future beamtime and experienced users interested in recent software capabilities and analysis strategies.
Duration: 5 hours (afternoon)
Small Angle Scattering Data Analysis Clinic
Tutorial Leaders: Kathleen Weigandt, Yun Liu, Lisa Debeer-Schmitt & Wellington Leite
Expert neutron scatterers will help students and newer users tackle their data fitting challenges in an interactive workshop.
Participants of this workshop will engage in interactive discussions with SANS scientists at ORNL and NCNR about how to analyze the SANS data of selected participants. Experiments will be selected for discussion from the participants of the workshop. The participants whose data are selected will present a brief overview of the scientific problem, the experiment they ran, and the difficulties or questions they have in analyzing their data. The participants and SANS scientists will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback as a group before breaking up into smaller groups to discuss the data and perhaps even try to work through some of the analysis during the workshop. After some time, the selected participants with the data will have an opportunity to put forward new results, something critical that they learned, or next steps toward answering their questions. Participants, whose data are not selected, will attend and join in the discussion and learn how to critically evaluate experimental data and analysis challenges. During the workshop, we will work together to provide feedback on real data to help in analyzing data or refining follow up experiments necessary to answer the relevant scientific questions.
Beyond helping the user community publish challenging data sets, other anticipated outcomes include fostering ongoing collaborative efforts between the NCNR and ORNL as well as information gathering on unmet analysis and modeling needs in the community based on the problems presented and the general audience feedback and questions.
Duration: 4 hours (afternoon)
Global Optimization and Uncertainty Analysis in Scattering Experiments
Tutorial Leaders: Paul Kienzle, Brian Maranville & Nandhini Raju
The tutorial begins with a detailed, standard-based procedure for uncertainty analysis using forward propagation of measurement uncertainty to arrive at a derived quantity. Demonstrated through a case study of sample temperature in a controlled atmosphere furnace, participants are guided through a step-by-step workflow: defining the measurand, identifying uncertainty sources, propagating uncertainties and reporting expanded uncertainty. The Monte Carlo method will be presented for use in more complex situations.
For data fitting, we present a Bayesian framework with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to estimate model parameters. Participants are guided through the workflow: defining the model, loading the data, sampling the parameter space, plotting distributions and reporting uncertainties. More complex scenarios will be demonstrated, such as simultaneous fits to related measurements. We will using the program Bumps (https://github.com/bumps/bumps) within Google Colab throughout this part of the tutorial. Familiarity with Python is required to follow along.
Tutorial content
1. Introduction: Available std, references, SI units, measurement traceability, errors, uncertainty
2. Basic statistics: Accuracy, precision, repeatability, reproducibility, bell curve, central limit theorem, deviation, mean, z, t and F tables. ANOVA
3. Uncertainty budgets: story board mapping, error sources, calculating uncertainty, expanded uncertainty, excel template
4. Monte Carlo techniques: forward uncertainty propagation, credible intervals, expected value, maximum likelihood
5. Data fitting: Bayes theorem, forward model, prior probability, posterior distribution, MCMC, Bumps application
6. Constrained optimization: tied parameters, simultaneous fitting, inequality constraints
Duration: 5 hours (afternoon)
Linking Structure and Dynamics to Properties in Amorphous Materials
Tutorial Leaders: Antonio Faraone, Madhusudan Tyagi, Yun Liu, Y Z, Naresh Osti, Laura Stingaciu, Piotr Zolnierczuk & Norman Wagner
Amorphous materials, including both natural and artificial polymers, solid polymer electrolytes, gels, hydrogels, liquids (in bulk and confined), glasses, membranes, peptides, and bio-inspired materials are of utmost importance. These materials have complex architecture, with their structural features and dynamic processes spanning a wide range of length and time scales, from single particle to the continuum hydrodynamic limit. The molecular structure and dynamics of these materials determine their intrinsic properties. A molecular-level understanding of the structure and dynamics of amorphous systems is critical for the rational design of new materials with improved characteristics and tunable properties. Neutron scattering provides valuable and unique insights into nanoscale structure and dynamics.
This tutorial is primarily aimed at graduate students, postdocs, and young faculty working on amorphous materials, e.g. liquids and soft matter. Participants will learn about the unique capabilities offered by high resolution neutron scattering methods, Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS), QuasiElastic Neutron Scattering (QENS) and Neutron Spin-Echo (NSE), to probe the structure and dynamics of their systems at the nanoscale. The first part of the tutorial will cover theoretical foundations. The second part will offer hands-on exercises on case studies covering experiment design, sample preparation, data reduction, and analysis. The tutorial will conclude with discussion on recent advances in instrumentation.
Duration: 8 hours (full day)
Quantitative Determination of Microstructures from Neutron Diffraction
Tutorial Leaders: Don Brown & Levente Balogh
There will be ~3 lectures on determining texture, dislocation density, and internal stress from diffraction data. The lectures will present examples of relating these results to microstructure aware models for the purpose of validation.
Duration: 4 hours (afternoon)
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American Conference on Neutron Scattering 2026 (ACNS 2026)
July 12 • 16, 2026