Article
Article
X-ray diffraction
Article By:
Warren, Bertram E. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dahl, Lawrence F. University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
Last updated:2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.750600
The scattering of x-rays by matter with accompanying variation in intensity in different directions due to interference effects. X-ray diffraction is one of the most important tools of solid-state chemistry, since it constitutes a powerful and readily available method for determining atomic arrangements in matter. X-ray diffraction methods depend upon the fact that x-ray wavelengths of the order of 1 nanometer are readily available and that this is the order of magnitude of atomic dimensions. When an x-ray beam falls on matter, scattered x-radiation is produced by all the atoms. These scattered waves spread out spherically from all the atoms in the sample, and the interference effects of the scattered radiation from the different atoms cause the intensity of the scattered radiation to exhibit maxima and minima in various directions. See also: Diffraction
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