Neutron diffraction often the case that light (low Z) atoms contribute strongly to the diffracted intensity, even in the presence of large Z atoms. The scattering length varies from isotope to isotope rather than linearly with the atomic number. An element like vanadium strongly scatters X-rays, but its nuclei hardly scatters neutrons, which is why it is often used as a container material. Non-magnetic neutron diffraction is directly sensitive to the positions of the nuclei of the atoms. Unlike X-rays, neutrons scatter mostly from the nuclei of the atoms, which are tiny. Furthermore, there is no need for an atomic form factor
Atom neutrons can potentially drop to a lower energy state through a radioactive decay that causes the number of protons and neutrons to more closely match. As a result, atoms with matching numbers of protons and neutrons are more stable against decay. However, with increasing atomic number, the mutual repulsion of the protons requires an increasing proportion of neutrons to maintain the stability of the nucleus, which slightly modifies this trend of equal numbers of protons to neutrons. The number of protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus can be modified, although this can require very high energies because of the