Structure of Amorphous Materials

The structure and properties of amorphous materials have been traditionally hard to analyze as one of the most ubiquitous tools for structural analysis x-ray (Bragg) diffraction is not applicable. On the other hand, the material properties of the amorphous phase have proven to be very useful for applications. A case in point is phase-change memory which utilizes the properties differences between crystalline and amorphous phases for data storage. Our group specializes in using a combination of synchrotron based techniques such as x-ray absorption spectroscopy, high-energy photoelectron spectroscopy, as well as total scattering to experimentally determine the local structure of amorphous materials. These experimental results in conjunction with density-functional theory-based analysis and ab-initio molecular dynamics has allowed the unraveling of the unique properties of different phase-change alloys.