Crystalline Order and Disorder Group

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Team leader: dr Wojciech Sławiński

Team leader’s e-mail address: wslawinski@chem.uw.edu.pl

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Brief description of the research topic:

Modern technology requires more and more advanced materials. But those higher expectations lead to even greater need to understand how and why those materials behave in a certain way or have given properties. It is sure that their properties are closely related to its crystal structure. In order to investigate structure of crystalline materials we use x-ray, synchrotron radiation and/or neutron diffraction data. Using the diffraction phenomenon, it is possible to precisely determine the average crystal structure of materials. Standard methods for analyzing single crystal or powder diffraction data allow precise description of the average structure (crystal lattice, atomic positions etc.). But it has now became necessary to describe local or short range order in the material as it can the source of materials properties. It is becoming more evident that only by looking closer on local (atomic) scale will allow to understand real materials. This challenge can be addressed by studying Pair Distribution Function which is a correlation function between interatomic pairs in the material. The research group conducts studies of locally disordered materials by using Pair Distribution Function as obtained from synchrotron radiation and neutron powder diffraction experiments. Such experiments are performed at large scale facilities called synchrotrons (ESRF, Diamond, SNS…) and neutron spallation sources (ISIS, ORNL…). We also develop software and analysis tools (RMCProfile7, RMCAnalyze…) to allow users analyze and better understand local material’s structure.