The group plays an active and important role in expanding the capabilities of existing instrumentation and in developing novel instrumentation and methods, which enable our studies of complex ionic, spin, chargen and lattice correlations and their relation to emergent phenomena.
Single Crystal Diffuse Scattering
Our group led the development of novel single crystal diffuse neutron and synchrotron X-ray scattering techniques, which have the potential for broad impact in determining the relations between local correlations on the nano- and mesoscale and emergent physical phenomena. These efforts recently led to the development and funding of the Corelli single crystal diffuse scattering instrument at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (https://neutrons.ornl.gov/corelli).
3D-ΔPDF Analysis
The availability of scattering intensities from single crystals over large volumes of momentum transfer enables transformation into three-dimensional pair-distribution functions (3D-PDF) via Fourier transforms. By subtraction the Bragg peak intensities from the observed Data before performing the transforms, we obtain the 3D-ΔPDF, which is the probability of a two-particle pair vector with respect to the average structure.
Polarized Neutron Reflectometry
Polarized Neutron Reflectometry (PNR) is a well-established technique that uniquely provides chemical and magnetic depth profiles. We are further developing this technique in order to make more efficient use of the neutron beam and to improve the accuracy of reflectivity curves measured over large ranges of momentum transfer.