Welcome to the website of the
Société Française de la Neutronique

Welcome to the website of the
Société Française de la Neutronique

The SFN is a learned society created in 1994 to promote neutronics within the scientific community and to federate the French neutronics community, covering a wide range of scientific fields (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.).

Every year, it organises the Journées de la Diffusion Neutronique, during which it awards its thesis prize to a young scientist.

Thematic Schools are held regularly, with courses published and freely accessible.

Finally, this website is at your disposal: it provides a forum for exchanging information about neutronics. Don’t hesitate to contact us and provide new ideas of contents!

SFN documents

The SFN has drawn up a text calling for an ambitious French policy for neutron scattering. This text has been sent in 2023 to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the CNRS and the CEA.

A ‘table ronde’ about HiCANS and the ICONE project took place during the JDN2023 in Erquy.

Bulletin SFN-2FDN

The latest SFN-2FDN monthly newsletter is now available!

This newsletter is dedicated to the community of neutron scattering users. It is co-edited by 2FDN and SFN.

SFN Thesis Prize

Winner 2024

Jury chaired by Laurent Michot

Tiago Outerelo Corvo

Structures and dynamics of Poly(Ionic liquid) in bulk and at interfaces

T. O. Corvo
T. O. Corvo

News

JDN 2025

The next Journées de la Diffusion Neutronique will take place on June 2-5, 2025 at Annecy Lake. Save the date! More information here.

HERCULES

HERCULES is a European school dedicated to thesis students and young researchers using Neutrons and Synchrotron Radiation for applications in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Condensed Matter (hard and soft).

Particle in a box: From textbook to real life example

The study of confined particles is at the heart of any quantum physics textbook, including examples of particles moving in a harmonic oscillator potential well and of particles trapped in a box. Studying these examples constitutes a starting block to deepen our understanding of the quantum dynamics of more realistic systems.

Publication: A combined inelastic neutron scattering and simulation study of the 3He@C60 endofullerene, M. Aouane et al., Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 25 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1039/D3CP02253F

Electronic ground-state hysteresis under magnetic field in GdMn2O5

Multiferroic compounds are widely studied for their magnetoelectric coupling, enabling polarization, for example, to be manipulated using a magnetic field. A new manifestation of magnetoelectric coupling has just been discovered in the multiferroic compound GdMn2O5. This study shows that it is possible to induce a new electronic state after applying a magnetic field and then switching it off. As for the magnetic order, it does indeed return to its initial state, as shown by neutron scattering.

Publication: Electronic ground-state hysteresis under magnetic field in GdMn2O5, V. Balédent et al., Physical Review B 108 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.104419

An enzyme in action seen by high-resolution quasielastic neutron scattering

Here we report on a recent study of Phosphoglycerate Kinase with high-resolution quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) in which the data analysis with a “minimalistic” multi-scale model for protein dynamics in space and time shows directly that the transformation of adenosine diphosphate (ADP) into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and thus the production of energy carriers within the living cell, is enabled by inter-domain motions of this enzyme.

Publication: Signature of functional enzyme dynamics in quasielastic neutron scattering spectra: The case of phosphoglycerate kinase, A. Hassani et al., J. Chem. Phys. 159 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.016612486

RECIPROCS – SAXS/SANS forum

The MITI-CNRS RECIPROCS network has been bringing together researchers, engineers and technicians working in the fields of diffraction and scattering for over 10 years. RECIPROCS has created a SAXS/SANS forum.

To access the forum, you must first join RECIPROCS (free of charge) by sending an email to reciprocs-contact(at)services.cnrs.fr.