Advances in Structural Studies of Materials using Scattering Probes

Abstract

Study of contemporary materials and their remarkable properties is a challenging problem. To understand these complex properties and develop better materials it is essential to understand their structures, as the two are intimately linked. Great advances in materials scattering have been achieved due to the advent of synchrotron and neutron sources along with the availability of high-speed computational algorithms. Materials scientists can now collect data with high resolution, high throughput from very small amount of sample (both single crystal and powder), and analyze vast amount of data to unravel detailed structural description that was not possible before. This article presents some of these great advances in using scattering probes for materials characterization.