The Basics of Crystallography and Diffra

Description

This book provides a clear and very broadly based introduction to crystallography, light, X-ray and electron diffraction – a knowledge which is essential to students in a wide range of scientific disciplines but which is otherwise generally covered in subject-specific and more mathematically detailed texts. The text is also designed to appeal to the more general reader since it shows, by historical and biographical references, how the subject has developed from the work and insights of successive generations of crystallographers and scientists. The book shows how an understanding of crystal structures, both inorganic and organic may be built up from simple ideas of atomic and molecular packing. Beginning with (two dimensional) examples of patterns and tilings, the concepts of lattices, symmetry point and space groups are developed. ‘Penrose’ tilings and quasiperiodic structures are also included.The reciprocal lattice and its importance in understanding the geometry of light, X-ray and electron diffractio