The unique blend of particle and wave properties - large rest mass, zero electric charge, magnetic dipole moment, isotope-specific scattering in combination with Å-scale wavelengths - makes of neutrons a very attractive and efficient tool for investigation of structure and dynamics of condensed matter. Since several decades elastic and inelastic neutron scattering became a standard experimental tool in a variety of condensed matter research domains, complementing the much more current X-ray scattering. Determination of magnetic structures, mapping the momentum and energy of structural and magnetic excitations and investigations of soft matter and biologic systems with the use of the isotopic hydrogen-deuterium contrast variation are just a few most significant examples. Thanks to the construction of dedicated national and international high-flux neutron sources this technique, originally reserved to a small number of highly specialized teams, became accessible to a broad scientific community. This trend is ongoing with the construction of next generation spallation sources like the SNS in the USA and ESS in Europe.
In this lecture we will concentrate on the fundamentals of neutron scattering techniques and on application examples of contemporary studies of functional materials related to spintronics, energy storage and molecular biology.