REVIEW OF NON-DIFFRACTION TECHNIQUES IN STRUCTURAL STUDIES

G. Faigel

Research Institute for Solid State Physics, Budapest, POB 49. Hungary. gf@power.szfki.kfki.hu

Keywords: Nuclear magnetic resonance, Mössbauer spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, extended x-ray absorption fine structure, atomic resolution x-ray holography

Most of the structural studies on crystals are done by diffraction. The cause of this is that both single crystal and powder diffraction give atomic or atomic plane distances after relatively simple evaluation. However, in many cases structural information from other, non-diffraction methods can facilitate the refinement of the structure. I addition to this there are special samples when diffraction methods fail, for example surfaces, buried interfaces, local environments around impurities etc. In these cases non-diffraction methods give unique information. We review these methods, including nuclear magnetic resonance, Mössbauer spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, extended x-ray absorption fine structure, atomic resolution x-ray holography. The areas in which these methods can be used will be demonstrated by examples.