Diffuse neutron scatterings from powder copper halides (CuCl, CuBr, CuI) were measured at 10 and 280 K. Oscillatory diffuse scatterings were clearly obtained at 280 K. The correlation effects between thermal displacements of first, second and third nearest neighboring atoms were necessary to explain the profile of the observed oscillatory diffuse scatterings. The values of correlation effects decrease rapidly with the increase of interatomic distance. The values of the correlation effects depend on the interatomic distance and not on the composition of copper halides and the temperature. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.