Quantitative knowledge of the structure of surfaces and interfaces is fundamental to the resolution of a host of important scientific questions. Research will be conducted using multiple scattering methods to analyze data from diffraction spectroscopies sensitive to short-range and long-range order in materials. In particular, development of direct methods for structural determination will be undertaken. It is a long-standing goal of structural analysis to develop methods to invert diffraction patterns to produce direct structural information. Direct methods which produce atomic resolution in real space will be investigated. Analytical and numerical studies will be closely coupled to experimental programs. %%% The goal of this research is to develop sophisticated methods to extract information about the positions of atoms at atomic resolutions from diffraction data. This is an extremely important program and is closely coupled to various experimental programs throughout the world. Before full understanding of surfaces, interfaces and bulk solids can be obtained, we must know where the atoms are and how they behave under various external stimuli. One of the techniques used to achieve this is electron holography.
