Convergent-beam X-ray crystallography

Molecular and polymeric crystals show a wide range of functional properties that arise from the interplay between the atomic-scale structure of their constituent molecules and the organization of these molecules within the crystal at macroscopic length scales. X-ray diffraction can provide structural information at these disparate length scales, but usually only through experiments that address one or the other of molecular (or unit-cell) structure versus crystal structure. Consequently, the accuracy of determined molecular or polymer structures may be limited by unaccounted for crystal inhomogeneities and the characterization of crystalline materials might not reveal the underlying causes of crystal morphology. Here we introduce X-ray convergent-beam diffraction to obtain spatially resolved structural information from crystals by projection topographic imaging. Using highly focusing X-ray multilayer Laue lenses, we show that Bragg reflections can be mapped into tomographic images of the crystal, for the characterization of strain and defects at high resolution. We demonstrate how the crystal morphology obtained this way can be accounted for when determining structure factors as a function of position in the crystal. The approach may assist in studies such as diffusion and binding in metal-organic framework structures, protein-drug binding, crystal growth, and the mechanical responses of photo-reactive or thermally driven dynamic crystals.