Total neutron scattering: the key to the local and medium range structure of complex materials

Structural characterization is mainly based on the measurement of Bragg intensities and yields the average structure of crystalline materials. The total scattering pattern, however, contains structural information over all length scales, and it can be used to obtain a complete structural picture of complex materials. Suddenly one has access to a new parameter, the real-space range of the refinement and structures can be analysed as a function of length scale straightforwardly. (author)