Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 30, 2026

Measurements of Long-range Electronic Correlations During Femtosecond Diffraction Experiments Performed on Nanocrystals of Buckminsterfullerene
Published on: August 22, 2017
Chirality, magnetic charge and other strange entities in resonant x-ray Bragg diffraction
Stephen W Lovesey1, Valerio Scagnoli
1ISIS Facility, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, UK. Diamond Light Source Ltd, Oxfordshire OX11 0DE, UK.
Abstract:
Subtleties in the electronic structure of complex materials can be directly observed, in great detail, by means of the Bragg diffraction of x-rays whose energy matches an atomic resonance. Strange atomic multipoles can be encountered in the interpretation of measured Bragg intensities, e.g., chirality and magnetic charge. Additionally, the x-ray technique allows the direct observation of the enantiomorphic screw-axis in chiral crystals, such as tellurium, low quartz and berlinite.
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