Studies of spin, charge and orbital ordering in single crystal samples
This area plays an important role in understanding the physics of strongly correlated electron systems including high temperature superconductors. Diffraction of high-intensity X-ray beams is the only known technique to study all of these phenomena directly. Diamond’s materials beamline will exceed the highest resolution currently available in the UK, and offers advantages in terms of simplicity of use, stability, good control over beam properties, remotely interchangeable detectors and analysers.

Thin films and multilayers
Determining the properties and morphology of thin films and interfaces remains an important area in solid-state science. Many of the technological end products of this science are based on artificial nanostructures, such as GMR read-heads used in modern computer disks. The magnetic properties of thin films are also a topic of intense investigation.

Semiconductor and optical crystals and heterostructures
Structural studies of periodic arrays of semiconductors and optical structures such as quantum dots and laser frequency doublers are extremely important in order to understand their electronic and optical properties. The resolution of I16 and its high quality diffractometer will be well suited to this area of study.