CHEM 710/7100-02 - Spectroscopy on Solids
Semester: Fall 2025
Professor: R. Smith | Discipline: Inorganic | Campus: WaterlooDescription
This course will introduce X-ray diffraction (Rietveld refinements) and X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy as tools to study solid state materials and demonstrate their practical application in analyzing defects in solid state materials. The principles and considerations underlying the Rietveld refinement process will be introduced and the overall process demonstrated. The underlying theory for XAS will then be introduced and the basic operating principles, experimental considerations, data processing routines and strategies for practical application will be covered.
Pre-requisite: A basic understanding of bonding and structure in solid state structures, such as obtained in CHEM313. No prior knowledge of the python language or programming is necessary.
Materials
Course material will be delivered using Jupyter notebooks populated with pre-written interactive python code that participants can adapt to their own research. The course will begin with an introduction to the working environment and the use of python within it. The course content will then be delivered explored with the use of open-source python packages, including GSAS-II (Rietveld refinements), Larch (X-ray absorption spectroscopy), Atomistic Simulation Environment and pymatgen.
Evaluation
TBA
Lab/Project
TBA
Schedule
- Mon: 9:30 am - 10:20 am in C2 278
- Wed: 9:30 am - 10:20 am in C2 278
- Fri: 9:30 am - 10:20 am in C2 278
