Branton J. Campbell
Professor
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602, USA
Tel: 801-422-5758, Fax: 801-422-0553
Email: branton_campbell[at]byu.edu
//physics.byu.edu/faculty/campbell/
Research Interests
I apply state-of-the-art x-ray and neutron scattering techniques to study local and long-range structures in a variety of complex solids, including fast-ion conductors, ferroelectric relaxors, high-temperature superconductors, and colossal magnetoresistive manganites, where nanoscale structural features influence macroscopic physical properties. This includes the development of symmetry-mode analysis as a tool for the determination, refinement and interpretation of distorted structures involving lattice strains, atomic displacements, magnetic moments and occupational orderings at both commensurate and incommensurate wavevectors.
Crystal Distortions
Crystal transformations that reduce symmetry are called "distortions". ISODISTORT (iso.byu.edu) is a powerful group-theoretical tool that can generate, parameterize, and interactively visualize virtually any crystal distortion involving atomic displacements, magnetic moments, occupational orderings, or lattice strains. Figure based on La2CoRuO6 (J. Mater. Chem. 15, 715-720, 2005).