Spectroscopic and structural measurements often give conflicting results about the role of disorder in determining the properties of energy materials. A hybrid neutron scattering technique is used to measure atomic correlations in time and space for cubic GeTe, revealing that anisotropic elastic interactions mimic disorder but the time-averaged structure is crystalline.
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References
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This is a summary of: Kimber, S. A. J. et al. Dynamic crystallography reveals spontaneous anisotropy in cubic GeTe. Nat. Mater. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01483-7 (2023).
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Revealing the origin of local atomic disorder in energy materials. Nat. Mater. 22, 427–428 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01513-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01513-4
