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Updated: Aug 25, 2026

Quantitative Atomic-Site Analysis of Functional Dopants/Point Defects in Crystalline Materials by Electron-Channeling-Enhanced Microanalysis
Published on: May 10, 2021
Beyond crystallography: the study of disorder, nanocrystallinity and crystallographically challenged materials with
Simon J L Billinge1, M G Kanatzidis
1Department of Physics and Astronomy and Center for Fundamental Materials Research, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Abstract:
Studying the structure of disordered and partially ordered materials is notoriously difficult. Recently, significant advances have been made using the atomic pair distribution function (PDF) analysis of powder diffraction data coupled with the use of advanced X-ray and neutron sources and fast computers. Here we summarize some of the more spectacular successes of this technique in studying the structure of complex materials and compounds. Our purpose is to make the PDF analysis technique familiar to the chemical community by describing its methodologies and highlighting its potential in solving structural characterization problems that are intractable by any other technique available to this community e.g. single crystal diffraction, Rietveld refinement of powder diffraction data and extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis (EXAFS).
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