Local structural analysis of bulk, nano, and thin film materials using atomic pair distribution function

The atomic pair distribution function (PDF) analysis of total scattering data is a short-to-medium range structural probing technique that does not require long-range structural order. Because of this reason, the PDF technique has been used for studying the structure of liquid and amorphous materials for a long time. Recently, it is often applied to emerging functional materials where atomic order limited to the nanoscale plays an important role for their fascinating properties. In this article, we introduce some of PDF studies using synchrotron X-ray total scattering data. These includes heavily disordered bulk crystals, species embedded in mesoporous materials, and thin films of immiscible elements. (author)