We introduce a novel method for local structure determination with a spatial resolution of the order of 0.01 Angstroem. It can be applied to materials containing clusters of exchange-coupled magnetic atoms. We use neutron spectroscopy to probe the energies of the cluster excitations which are determined by the interatomic coupling strength J. Since for most materials J is related to the interatomic distance R through a linear relation dJ/dR={\alpha} (for dR/R<<1), we can directly derive the local distance R from the observed excitation energies. This is exemplified for the mixed one-dimensional paramagnetic compound CsMnxMg1 xBr3 (x=0.05, 0.10) containing manganese dimers oriented along the hexagonal c-axis. Surprisingly, the resulting Mn-Mn distances R do not vary continuously with increasing internal pressure, but lock in at some discrete values.
@article{arxiv.1109.1965,
title = {Direct observation of local Mn-Mn distances in the paramagnetic compound CsMnxMg1-xBr3},
author = {A. Furrer and Th. Strässle and J. P. Embs and F. Juranyi and V. Pomjakushin and M. Schneider and K. W. Krämer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1109.1965},
year = {2011}
}