Materials Dynamics Laboratory, SPring-8/RIKEN^* Research and Utilization Division, SPring-8/JASRI^**
○Alfred Q.R. Baron^{*, **}

Inelastic x-ray scattering (IXS) is a relatively new method of measuring atomic dynamics in materials at meV energy transfers and 1 to 100 nm^-1 momentum transfers. This range includes phonons in crystalline samples, and excitations in disordered materials (liquids and glasses). The technique affords some unique advantages including access to extremely small samples (<0.01mm³, some 5 orders of magnitude smaller than neutron scattering), and easy access to low momentum transfers (important for disordered materials). However, it also pushes the limits of what is possible even at third generation synchrotron sources. The talk will provide a brief introduction to the technique as implemented at BL35XU of SPring-8, with examples from recent work, with a focus on the investigation of electron-phonon coupling in superconductors.