Department of Structure Analysis

The Department of Structure Analysis focuses on the development and application of modern crystallographic methods for the analysis of crystal structures from X-ray, neutron or electron diffraction data. Classical crystallography provides the positions of atoms within crystalline chemical compounds, as long as they are available as reasonably sized crystals thus yielding a sufficiently strong signal on X-ray sources. In its advanced form, crystallography is a swiftly developing science investigating the finest structural details, such as the modulation of atomic properties as found in aperiodic samples, or the arrangement of spins in case of magnetic materials, by means of developing theoretical methods for understanding ever more subtle symmetrical and geometrical aspects of crystal structures. One of the main contemporary experimental challenges is given by the analysis of nanocrystals from electron diffraction. In all cases, the knowledge of the atomic structure of solids is the prerequisite for any serious material science, mineralogical, chemical, biological and pharmaceutical research.