Scope and Objectives

SIG D³ brings together scientists working on dynamical properties, disorder and diffuse scattering. The main objectives are to enhance the exchange of information regarding recent progress in experiment and theory, to provide a platform for discussions, to promote use of diffraction and crystallographic tools in studying the physics and chemistry of materials which display some kind of disorder.

SIG D³ aims at achieving a coherent understanding of the various contributions to Bragg and diffuse scattering related to disorder phenomena. The disorder is taken here in a broad sense and includes structural imperfections present at different time and length scales, varying from domain walls to compositional fluctuations and fundamental excitations in non-ideal crystals. We note that this field has experienced a significant revival thanks to the advent of bright synchrotron and neutron sources, the development of new detectors, and the availability of powerful computing tools. SIG D³ also focuses on experimental techniques to probe disorder and dynamical response, and on the processing and presentation of big data sets associated with the study of diffuse scattering. SIG D³also aims at generating a pool of software and experimental facilities best suited for studies of dynamics and disorder phenomena.

At present, the following topics play an important role in the field:

Diffuse scattering associated with fundamental excitations
Atomic displacement parameters and lattice dynamics
Ab-initio calculations of lattice dynamics and thermal diffuse scattering
Occupational, displacive, and orientational disorder in crystals
Correlation analysis of diffuse scattering
Extracting 3D pair distribution functions from diffuse scattering
Direct space modeling of disordered systems with Monte Carlo and other techniques
Disorder in photonic crystals
Magnetic diffuse scattering
Dynamics and disorder at extreme conditions
Excited state crystallography
Inelastic X-ray and neutron scattering
Diffuse scattering in powder diffraction
Macromolecular diffuse scattering and dynamics of proteins