X-Ray and Neutron Science

Our research is centered around the use of large-scale experimental facilities using neutrons and X-rays, including the new X-ray source MAX-IV and the coming neutron source ESS, located in Lund (S), but also home-lab facilities e.g. via the CXC. With these sources, we study a wide range of hard and soft materials.

Our cross-disciplinary activities ranges from the study of polymer structure, over hydrogen dynamics in complex biophysical systems to the understanding of the complex quantum nature of magnets and superconductors.

Our activities are a combination of materials preparation, experimental studies with neutrons, X-rays and other techniques, numerical modeling and analytical theory. In addition, we contribute to the development of hardware and software to ESS and MAX-IV.

Research

Out efforts are a part of international collaborations that includes both experimental and theoretical methods. The main direction of our research are:

Soft matter

We study the structure of soft matter, such as polymer materials and complex biophysical systems.

We study the polymers with a combination of scattering, rheology and numerical simulations, with particular emphasis on self-assembly and dynamics.

Considerable focus is also given to the study of hydrogen dynamics of specific polymers – mostly the ones applied in dentistry - as well as to the understanding of the dynamics of biologically bound water in living cells and proteins.

Magnetism and superconductivity

We study the role of magnetism in materials. In particular, we are interested in the connection between the magnetism and the functionality of materials.

Examples of this are:

Unconventional superconductivity. We have a dedicated program to understand the role of magnetism in the high-temperature superconductors, with the ambition to understand the origin of superconductivity in these elusive materials.
“frustrated” magnets, where the energy landscape is very shallow and complicated, which in turn may lead to completely new states of matter;
many-body quantum mechanical correlation (entanglement) in magnets.