My specialisation is X-ray diffraction using synchrotron radiation. During the Bell Labs years, I developed the methods for studying surface structure using X-ray diffraction. These methods, based on crystal truncation rods, have become the definitive technique for the determination of the atomic positions at surfaces and interfaces. These surface methods are still used today at the major SR facilities, NSLS (Brookhaven), ESRF (Grenoble), APS(Chicago) and SRS (Daresbury). More recently I have been developing method of using the very high coherence of the latest SR sources to enable direct 3D imaging of structure. This is potentially useful for examining strain distributions inside complex materials.
The coherent X-ray diffraction methods will develop and expand further with the inauguration of the new Diamond Light Source (DLS) presently being built at Rutherford Lab near Oxford. My research at UCL is largely focused on this development, although we continue to do experiments at ESRF and APS during the buildup period.

A list of PhD projects is available for donwload

Recent Publications

• "Longitudinal Coherence Function in X-ray Imaging of Crystals", Steven J. Leake, Marcus C. Newton, Ross Harder and Ian K. Robinson, Optics Express 17 15853 (2009)
• "Three-Dimensional Imaging of Strain in a Single ZnO Nanorod", Marcus C. Newton, Steven J. Leake, Ross Harder and Ian K. Robinson, submitted to Nature Materials (2009)
• "Bistable Strain State of Zeolite Microcrystals Imaged by Coherent X-ray Diffraction", Wonsuk Cha, Sanghoon Song, Nak Cheon Jeong, Ross Harder, Kyung Byung Yoon, Ian K. Robinson, Hyunjung Kim, submitted to Nature Materials (2009)
• "Confocal Microscope Alignment of Nanocrystals for Coherent Diffraction Imaging", Loren Beitra, Moyu Watari, Takashi Matsuura, Naonobu Shimamoto, Ross Harder and Ian Robinson, submitted to Proceedings of Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation (2009)
• "Imaging of Complex Density in Silver Nanocubes by Coherent X-ray Diffraction", R. Harder, M. Liang, Y. Sun, Y. Xia and I.K. Robinson, submitted to New Journal of Physics (2009)