Lecture 1

Structure of Crystals

- Cannot use visible light as these are too large compared to the size of the atoms.
- We will need to use x-rays
o Problematically, x-rays cant be focused with a lens, so use an x-ray microscope will
never yield a strong enough signal to be detected.

Crystallography (X-rays wavelength of order 1 Angstorm, (1 angstrom is size of atom))

- Instead, we take a large number of atoms arranged in some crystal structure.

o We diffract x-rays off them
Such that x-rays combine to form a single image
This image conveys information about the average structure of all
the x-rays combined.
Diffraction is an inherent property of waves
That is no lens is involved, we shine through slits that can reconstruct the x-
rays through interference into a single image.
o Constructive and destructive interference patterns convey information about the
distance between the slits.
i.e. the distance between atoms
o when two or more slits are placed in some regular array
i.e. an atomic structure, 2-D array of slits.
It will produce a 2-D diffraction pattern

o a diffraction pattern is not a project image of the grid.

There is a complex mathematical formula (fourier) that characterises the
diffraction produced!
The bigger the beam or the smaller the spots, the better the diffraction
pattern
The diffraction pattern changes for different grids and rotates with the grid.
Bragg Diffraction

- Bragg explained that x-rays behave as if they are reflected by planes of the crystal lattice.