The main interest of this group is in the structure-property correlations in oxide materials, and the application of diffraction methods to materials problems. The materials of interest have included superconductors, ionic conductors, mixed conductors, GMR materials and other magnetic materials, bioceramics and bone. Materials are characterised using a wide variety of physical techniques including X-ray diffraction, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, ac impedance spectroscopy, neutron diffraction, solid state nmr electron diffraction, electron spin resonance, SQUID/PPMS/MPMS, and so on.
Solid state synthesis techniques and the strategy for the synthetic work is to study new phase diagrams, identifying new materials and to use targeted chemical doping to alter existing materials.
Contact: Professor Jan Skakle