抄録
Crystal structure is the fundamental information in the materials science, chemistry, physics and geoscience. Electron-density distribution of ceramic materials is important, because most of material properties are governed by the electronic states. Ion-diffusion pathway is useful to understand the ion conduction mechanism. In the present paper the author briefly reviews his group’s recent research works on the crystal structure, thermal expansion, electron-density distribution and ion-diffusion pathway of some ceramic materials investigated by multiple approaches such as synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction, neutron powder diffraction, electron diffraction, first-principles electronic calculations, maximum-entropy method (MEM) and bond valence method. The crystal structure should be examined by multiple methods, because invalid structure sometimes gives good Rietveld fit.