News

We were pleased to host the 13th edition of the continuing education course “Diffraction by Polycrystalline Materials: Beyond Structural Refinement.”

People from various regions of France came to receive training in both ab initio structural determination and analysis using the Pair Distribution Function (PDF).
The workshop on ab initio structural determination provided an opportunity to review the various approaches (direct methods, parallel annealing, and charge flipping) used to obtain a structural model prior to any refinement.

The other two days were devoted to PDF analysis based on the study of total scattering, which is applicable to the study of crystalline materials as well as amorphous materials and glass-ceramics. While PDF techniques have long been the near-exclusive domain of large-scale instruments (such as synchrotrons or neutron sources), the number of studies has continued to rise, and this growth is expected to accelerate with the ability to perform many of these analyses using simple laboratory diffractometers.

The lectures and hands-on exercises were led by IMN members Olivier Hernandez and Pierre-Emmanuel Petit. We would also like to extend our warmest thanks to Maria Diaz-Lopez ofthe Néel Institute in Grenoble for her one-day presentation as a world-renowned expert in PDF analysis.

The participants left very satisfied with this week-long training session, which was designed to strengthen their skills in powder diffraction as part of their research activities.

This Level 2 training course was organized jointly with the Focal department at the University of Nantes. A Level 1 training course will be scheduled for March 2027.

A big thank you to the participants: Lisa Audouard (CNRS, CEA, École Polytechnique Paris), Paul Beal (Sorbonne University Paris), Julie Castello Pedrotti (CNRS, CEA, École Polytechnique Paris), Claire Colin (Institut Néel, Grenoble), Rodolf Leaute (Sorbonne University, Paris), Pascal Loiseau (Chimie ParisTech ENSCP), Youenn Barreau (University of Nantes).