News

X-ray diffraction of polycrystalline materials in the spotlight at the laboratory!

We were delighted to welcome participants from all over France for the 34ᵉ edition of our Level 1 continuing education course dedicated to X-ray, neutron and electron diffraction of polycrystalline materials.

This is a clear indication of the scientific community’s interest in techniques that not only enable structural resolution and refinement, but also the study of crystallite sizes, micro-deformations and proportions of phase mixtures in multi-phase systems.

Thanks to the precision of today’s laboratory diffractometers, and the use of processing programs whose performance is constantly evolving, non-destructive quantitative phase analyses can be carried out with high precision, and are therefore industrially very attractive, even when on-line measurements are envisaged. Similarly, samples made up of mixtures of amorphous and crystallized phases of known structure can also be analyzed (e.g. glass-ceramics).

Our laboratory, heavily involved in the crystallography of polycrystalline phases, is offering this five-day training course with specific workshops, co-led by Olivier Hernandez and Mayte Caldes. Classes and practical work are supervised by six IMN lecturers, as well as two external lecturers, Pierre Bordet (DR émérite CNRS) from the Institut Néel CNRS in Grenoble and Damien Jacob, professor at the University of Lille.

This continuing education program is organized jointly with Nantes University’s continuing education and work-study department (Focal).

The next session of Level 2 training will take place in October 2026.