Incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering from plastic crystals

The aim of this paper is to present some applications of a method indicated by Sears in order to correct for multiple scattering. The calculations were performed in the particular case of slow neutron incoherent quasielastic scattering from organic plastic crystals. First, an exact calculation (up to second scattering) is compared with the results of a Monte Carlo simulation technique. Then, an approximation is developed on the basis of a rotational jump model which allows a further analytical treatment. The multiple scattering is expressed in terms of generalized structure factors (which can be regarded as self convolutions of first order structure factors taking into account the instrumental geometry) and lorentzian functions the widths of which are linear combinations of the jump rates. Three examples are given. Two of them correspond to powder samples while in the third we are concerned with the case of a single crystalline slab. In every case, this approximation is shown to be a good approach to the multiple scattering evaluation, its main advantage being the possibility of applying it without any preliminary knowledge of the correlation times for rotational jumps. (author)