Owing to the tremendous development of radiation sources and area-sensitive detectors, single-crystal X-ray diffraction in diamond anvil cells (DAC) can now be performed on complex crystal structures to megabar pressures. However, there are hardly any single-crystal neutron diffraction studies in the DAC that would present complete structural refinements. The reason is that it is still...
The advent of solid-state batteries has spawned a recent increase in interest in lithium conducting solid electrolytes, especially in the lithium thiophosphates. However, often the underlying principles governing the ionic transport are not known.
In this presentation, we will discuss two of our recent approaches to understand the underlying structures of some ionic conductors and optimizing...
Hydrogen atoms are usually neglected in protein structures due to experimental difficulties in their detection; nevertheless, they play an important role in ligand recognition and protonation states of ligand and protein. In hydrogen-bond interactions, and as part of water molecules, hydrogen atoms indicate the geometry of hydrogen-bonding networks and help to classify the rotational states of...
Manganite oxides family RMn2O5 (R – rare-earth element) represents prominent example of a multiferroics with extremely interesting and close relationship between magnetism and ferroelectricity. The understanding of the microscopic mechanisms responsible for spin-driven ferroelectricity in these compounds considered to be the actual and intriguing issue in the studies of multiferroicity of...
We will present our crystal structure determinations of various chemical compounds synthesized by us during our investigations in the fields of beryllium, uranium and fluorine chemistry. Neutron diffraction on powders provided crucial insights, for example for hydrogen bonding and precise positioning of light atoms close to heavy ones. The synthesis and crystal structures of...
Single crystal and/or powder diffraction are the experimental techniques, which stands on the forefront of the material characterisation, delivering the key information about the crystal structure, symmetry and chemical contentn. Being perfectly parametrized and standardized technique, the diffraction is widely used and an X-ray powder diffractometer is a part of equipment in nearly every lab...
Polarized neutron diffraction (PND) is a powerful method to investigate magnetic structures. PND can be used for very precise magnetization measurements even for weak magnetic contributions. It allows the high-quality determination of magnetic form factors, to untangle complex (e.g. chiral) magnetic structures, and to follow the movement of magnetic domains. By conserving the phase relation...
Spin ices are exotic phases of matter characterized by frustrated spins obeying local ice rules that minimize the number of spatially isolated magnetic monopoles, in analogy with the electric dipoles in water ice. In two dimensions, one can similarly define ice rules for inplane Ising-like spins arranged on a kagome lattice, which require each triangle plaquette to have a single monopole, and...
The time and length scales for fast proton dynamics in several ps over hydrogen bonds (HBs) in the title compound could be determined from quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) at TOFTOF. Its dielectric response in a wide frequency range of 1 Hz - 3 GHz from 30 K to 500 K is implicated in its structural properties revealed by Rietveld refinements using neutron powder diffraction data...
