X-ray microdiffraction of biominerals

Biominerals have complex and heterogeneous architectures, hence diffraction experiments with spatial resolutions between 500 nm and 10 μm are extremely useful to characterize them. X-ray beams in this size range are now routinely produced at many synchrotrons. This chapter provides a review of the different hard X-ray diffraction and scattering techniques, used in conjunction with efficient, state-of-the-art X-ray focusing optics. These include monochromatic X-ray microdiffraction, polychromatic (Laue) X-ray microdiffraction, and microbeam small-angle X-ray scattering. We present some of the most relevant discoveries made in the field of biomineralization using these approaches.