A comparison of the merits of isotopic substitution in neutron small-angle scattering and anomalous X-ray scattering for the evaluation of partial structure functions in a ternary alloy

Solute partitioning during decomposition of a ternary alloy may be evaluated through the inversion of a system of linear equations, obtained by performing at least three independent small-angle scattering experiments. The merits of neutron scattering (with isotopic contrast) and of anomalous X-ray scattering (near the absorption edges) are compared. It appears that neutron scattering, although having good contrast, is not suited to these studies since slight structural differences between the three samples may lead to erroneous results. On the other hand, the use of the same sample in anomalous scattering avoids this problem, but with the drawback of a more ill-conditioned system. Nevertheless, the possibility of performing more than three anomalous experiments may improve the results and a new analysis of data is proposed.