'Young crystallographers' rejuvenate crystallography in Germany.

Since its founding in 2013, the Young Crystallographers (YC) have become one of the most active working groups not only within their parent organization, the German Crystallographic Society (DGK), but also among other young crystallographers' groups in Europe and the world. The aim of the YC is and always has been to support early-career researchers in the diverse fields of crystallography and the rejuvenation of the field on a national scale. Over the past decade, we have curated events, platforms, and educational content tailored to foster collaboration and knowledge transfer among young crystallographers.

Treatment of multiple-beam X-ray diffraction in energy-dependent measurements.

During X-ray diffraction experiments on single crystals, the diffracted beam intensities may be affected by multiple-beam X-ray diffraction (MBD). This effect is particularly frequent at higher X-ray energies and for larger unit cells. The appearance of this so-called Renninger effect often impairs the interpretation of diffracted intensities.

Picometer polar atomic displacements in strontium titanate determined by resonant X-ray diffraction.

Physical properties of crystalline materials often manifest themselves as atomic displacements either away from symmetry positions or driven by external fields. Especially the origin of multiferroic or magnetoelectric effects may be hard to ascertain as the related displacements can reach the detection limit. Here we present a resonant X-ray crystal structure analysis technique that shows enhanced sensitivity to minute atomic displacements.

Analysis of modulated Ho2PdSi3 crystal structure at Pd K and Ho L absorption edges using resonant elastic X-scattering.

Replacing Si atoms with a transition metal in rare earth disilicides results in a family of intermetallic compounds with a variety of complex magnetic phase transitions. In particular, the family R 2PdSi3 shows interesting magnetic behavior arising from the electronic interaction of the R element with the transition metal in the Si network, inducing the specific structure of the related phase. Within this series, the highest degree of superstructural order was reported for the investigated representative Ho2PdSi3, although several competing superstructures have been proposed in literature.