Absolute intensity normalization of powder neutron scattering data

An important property of neutron diffraction data is that they can be normalized in absolute intensity units. In practice, however, such normalization is seldom performed, since it can be time consuming and subject to systematic uncertainties. Here, a straightforward approach is presented for absolute intensity normalization of neutron diffraction data from polycrystalline samples. This approach uses the intensity scale factor obtained from a Rietveld refinement to normalize the data to the nuclear Bragg profile of the sample. Factors to convert the Rietveld scale factor into an absolute normalization factor are tabulated for constant-wavelength and time-of-flight data refined using the popular programs FullProf and GSAS-II. An example of the application of this method to experimental data is presented. Advantages, disadvantages and extensions of this approach to spectroscopic data are discussed.