This book is intended for graduate engineers and physicists who wish to become acquainted with the branch of physics dealing with nuclear reactors. No prior knowledge of the subject is assumed, but it is anticipated that the reader will be familiar with calculus and elementary nuclear physics.
Some introductory remarks on the latter are given in the first chapter.
Specially designed for experimentalists, whether they be research workers, teachers or postgraduate students, this book presents a concise and authoritative survey of the theory and experiment of neutron scattering by condensed matter.
Processes in which the neutron gains or loases energy in the collision are discussed, and are analysed in terms of the dynamical behaviour of the sample.
An aim of the mathematical presentation is to underline and describe the physical process, rather than present a rigorous treatment of the theory.
Since the first edition of this book was published, there have been major advances in its field. The most striking development has been in the preparation and use of lithium–drifted germanium devices for gamma ray spectroscopy, but lithium–drifted silicon detectors have also been developed further. Semi–conductor detectors are now used more widely than ever before, both within nuclear physics and outside it, for example in medicine and space physics, and the manufacture of ancillary electronic equipment has burgeoned correspondingly. There have been further advances in our theoretical understanding too : fresh explanations and descriptions have been put forward of the physical processes involved in surface barrier formation, and the recognition of channelling as a factor to be considered in the behaviour of charged particles in single crystals has complicated the basic explanation of nuclear radiation in solids.
These and other advances have made necessary extensive changes in the content of the first edition. About 25 per cent of the second edition is new material, and there are almost 50 new figures. The structure of the book remains the same, however.