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.
Scattering Probes of Material Structure
BYU physics researchers use some of the world's brightest x-ray and neutron sources to study the atomic structure and dynamics of advanced materials like superconductors and piezoelectrics. At the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, accelerator-driven proton pulses bombard a liquid-mercury target, knocking high-energy neutrons from the target nuclei, which are then slowed in a moderator, collimated into beams, and scattered from material samples.