Wavelength, diffracted beams

Each diffracted beam, which is recorded as a spot on the film, is defined by three properties the amplitude, which we can measure from the intensity of the spot the wavelength, which is set by the x-ray source and the phase, which is lost in x-ray experiments (Figure 18.8). We need to know all three properties for all of the diffracted beams to determine the position of the atoms giving rise to the diffracted beams. How do we find the phases of the diffracted beams This is the so-called phase problem in x-ray crystallography. 

Figure 18.8 Two diffracted beams (purple and orange), each of which is defined by three properties amplitude, which is a measure of the strength of the beam and which is proportional to the intensity of the recorded spot phase, which is related to its interference, positive or negative, with other beams and wavelength, which is set by the x-ray source for monochromatic radiation.

The intensity differences obtained in the diffraction pattern by illuminating such a crystal by x-rays of different wavelengths can be used in a way similar to the method of multiple isomorphous replacement to obtain the phases of the diffracted beams. This method of phase determination which is called Multiwavelength Anomalous Diffraction, MAD, and which was pioneered by Wayne Hendrickson at Columbia University, US, is now increasingly used by protein cystallographers. 

The capillary wave frequency is detected by an optical heterodyne technique. The laser beam, quasi-elastically scattered by the capillary wave at the liquid-liquid interface, is accompanied by a Doppler shift. The scattered beam is optically mixed with the diffracted beam from the diffraction grating to generate an optical beat in the mixed light. The beat frequency obtained here is the same as the Doppler shift, i.e., the capillary wave frequency. By selecting the order of the mixed diffracted beam, we can change the wavelength of the observed capillary wave according to Eq. (11). 

Diffraction is a scattering phenomenon. When x-rays are incident on crystalline solids, they are scattered in all directions. In some of these directions, the scattered beams are completely in phase and reinforce one another to form the diffracted beams [1,2]. Bragg s law describes the conditions under which this would occur. It is assumed that a perfectly parallel and monochromatic x-ray beam, of wavelength A, is incident on a crystalline sample at an angle 0. Diffraction will occur if... 

X-ray radiation wavelength—that is, 1/ X. When the crystal is rotated, the reciprocal lattice rotates with it and different points within the lattice are brought to diffraction. The diffracted beams are called reflections because each of them can be regarded as a reflection of the primary X-ray beam against planes in the crystal. 

Figure 4.9 The Laue back-reflection method. The direction of the incident beam and the reciprocal lattice are fixed in space, and wavelengths are selected out of the beam. The Ewald sphere may be any diameter between the short and long wavelength cutoffs. The larger circle shows an intermediate wavelength and the diffracted beams that result at this wavelength...

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