Research:  Resonant soft x-ray scattering

In the past several years a new technique, resonant soft x-ray scattering, has emerged as a powerful new tool to study electronic ordering in materials like the high temperature superconductors or the colossal magneto resistance manganite materials.  The major focus of our current research is to develop this technique, in conjunction with groups at the University of British Columbia and the University of Saskatchewan, at the Canadian Light Source, the new 3rd generation synchrotron in Saskatoon.

The power of this technique is to combine x-ray scattering, which probes spatial order, with x-ray spectroscopy, which probes electronic structure and is sensitive to different atomic species, as well as different valence, magnetic and orbital states within an atomic species.  This combination allows one to probe very directly and considerable detail a variety of exotic magnetic (spin), charge, orbital or structural order phenomena.