A description of recent work performed by collaboration among the CIMAV Crystal Physics Group, the ILL Diffraction Group and the GEC Nanotechnology Education and Research Centre (NERC), regarding structure-electromagnetic properties relationships, is given. Structure analysis puts emphasis on thin films texture characterization. The new software package ANAELU, for texture analysis via two-dimensional (2-D) diffraction detection, is described. Crystallographic texture plays a significant role on ferroic and multiferroic bulk and nano-structured materials properties. With the objective of estimating effective values for polycrystal dielectric, piezoelectric, elastic and magnetoelectric coefficients, the Voigt, Reuss and Hill approximations are systematized in an extended version of program SAMZ.
Use of Flash Simulations to Enhance Nanotechnology Education