Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

X-ray Crystallography

X-ray Crystallography

The size of the unit cell and the arrangement of atoms in a crystal may be determined from measurements of the diffraction of X-rays by the crystal, termed X-ray crystallography.
Diffraction
Diffraction is the change in the direction of travel experienced by an electromagnetic wave when it encounters a physical barrier whose dimensions are comparable to those of the wavelength of the light. X-rays are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths about as long as the distance between neighboring...

$X-ray Diffraction of Biological Samples$ 01:10

X-ray Diffraction of Biological Samples

X-ray diffraction or XRD is an analytical tool that utilizes X-rays to study ordered structures such as crystalline organic and inorganic samples, polycrystalline materials, proteins, carbohydrates, and drugs.
According to Bragg's law, when X-rays strike the sample positioned on a stage, the rays are scattered by the electron clouds around the sample atoms. The X-ray diffraction or scattering is caused by constructive interference of the X-ray waves that reflect off the internal...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Electron ptychography reveals correlated lattice vibrations at atomic resolution.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Platform and Framework for Time-Resolved Nanoscale Thermal Transport Measurements in STEM.

Microscopy and microanalysis : the official journal of Microscopy Society of America, Microbeam Analysis Society, Microscopical Society of Canada·2026

Same author

Quasi-2D Morphologies of a Non-Fullerene Acceptor Y6 by Interfacial Assembly via Langmuir-Schaefer Technique.

Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)·2025

Same author

Nanoindentation for Tailored Single-Photon Emitters in hBN: Influence of Annealing on Defect Stability.

ACS nano·2025

Same author

Approaching one nanosecond temporal resolution with square-wave-based control signals for interference gating.

Ultramicroscopy·2025

Same author

From text to insight: large language models for chemical data extraction.

Chemical Society reviews·2024

Same journal

Predictive drift compensation of multi-frame STEM via live scan modification.

Ultramicroscopy·2026

Same journal

Deep PACBED: Multitask analysis of PACBED images using deep neural networks.

Ultramicroscopy·2026

Same journal

Guided progressive reconstructive imaging: A new quantization-based framework for low-dose, high-throughput and real-time analytical ptychography.

Ultramicroscopy·2026

Same journal

Brightness optimization in a 200 keV DTEM source by geometry-driven aberration suppression.

Ultramicroscopy·2026

Same journal

Characterization of the Timepix4 hybrid pixel detector and its impact on four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM).

Ultramicroscopy·2026

Same journal

Contamination analysis of the residual gas composition in transmission electron microscopy.

Ultramicroscopy·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 9, 2025

$Microfluidic Chips for In Situ Crystal X-ray Diffraction and In Situ Dynamic Light Scattering for Serial Crystallography$

Microfluidic Chips for In Situ Crystal X-ray Diffraction and In Situ Dynamic Light Scattering for Serial Crystallography

Published on: April 24, 2018

Solving the crystallographic phase problem using dynamical scattering in electron diffraction.

Christoph T Koch¹

¹Department of Physics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstrasse 15, Berlin, 12489, Germany.

Ultramicroscopy

|February 15, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study introduces a new method to solve crystal structures using electron diffraction patterns. It leverages multiple scattering to retrieve phase information, even without atomic resolution, aiding complex structure determination.

Keywords:

Crystallography Electron diffraction Inversion of dynamical scattering

More Related Videos

$Synchrotron X-ray Microdiffraction and Fluorescence Imaging of Mineral and Rock Samples$

Synchrotron X-ray Microdiffraction and Fluorescence Imaging of Mineral and Rock Samples

Published on: June 19, 2018

$X-ray Powder Diffraction in Conservation Science: Towards Routine Crystal Structure Determination of Corrosion Products on Heritage Art Objects$

X-ray Powder Diffraction in Conservation Science: Towards Routine Crystal Structure Determination of Corrosion Products on Heritage Art Objects

Published on: June 8, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Aug 9, 2025

$Microfluidic Chips for In Situ Crystal X-ray Diffraction and In Situ Dynamic Light Scattering for Serial Crystallography$

Microfluidic Chips for In Situ Crystal X-ray Diffraction and In Situ Dynamic Light Scattering for Serial Crystallography

Published on: April 24, 2018

$Synchrotron X-ray Microdiffraction and Fluorescence Imaging of Mineral and Rock Samples$

Synchrotron X-ray Microdiffraction and Fluorescence Imaging of Mineral and Rock Samples

Published on: June 19, 2018

$X-ray Powder Diffraction in Conservation Science: Towards Routine Crystal Structure Determination of Corrosion Products on Heritage Art Objects$

X-ray Powder Diffraction in Conservation Science: Towards Routine Crystal Structure Determination of Corrosion Products on Heritage Art Objects

Published on: June 8, 2016

Area of Science:

Crystallography
Materials Science
Electron Microscopy

Background:

Solving crystal structures requires phase information of structure factors, typically obtained when atoms are sharply resolved in diffraction data.
Traditional methods for X-ray and electron diffraction struggle with phase retrieval when atomic resolution is insufficient or data is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

To present a novel method for solving the crystallographic phase problem by utilizing multiple scattering in diffraction patterns.
To demonstrate the retrieval of electron structure factor amplitudes and phases from diffraction data acquired at varying incidence angles.

Main Methods:

Employing multiple scattering phenomena within diffraction patterns to encode and retrieve phase information.
Recording electron diffraction patterns at multiple, varying angles of incidence.
Developing algorithms to extract both amplitudes and phases of electron structure factors without prior assumptions on the scattering potential.

Main Results:

Successfully retrieved both amplitudes and phases of electron structure factors from experimental diffraction patterns.
Demonstrated the method's efficacy even when diffraction data lacks the resolution to clearly distinguish individual atoms.
Validated the approach for solving crystal structures without making assumptions about the scattering potential.

Conclusions:

The presented method offers a viable solution to the crystallographic phase problem, particularly for complex and beam-sensitive structures.
This technique expands the applicability of electron crystallography to samples like 2D protein crystals where atomic resolution is challenging.
The ability to retrieve phase information without high-resolution data opens new avenues for structural analysis in materials science and biochemistry.